Straight Edge Grudge

The Straight Edge movement has been making a revival recently among teenagers. Popular in the 1980's a new generation of youth seems to have picked up on it. For those uninitiated to the term, to be "straight edge" means to live a clean lifestyle (no drugs, etc). It is basiclly a hip way of saying that you are straight laced. I had a respect for this for a long time. I mean, hey, it is pretty darn cool to see highschoolers declair that they will stand up, without shame, against certain behaviors. It's refreshing to see teenagers willing to take the moral high ground. So what if it gets tiresome seeing xXx or sXe (shorthand for straight edge) scribbled all over the place. The sentiment is admirable.

I, however, don't think it is so cute anymore. These same teenagers are slowly undermining the power of the statement. What used to be a declaration of purity is now no more powerful than those tiresome D.A.R.E. (Drug Awareness and Resistence Education) t-shirts we used to wear in elementary school. I think my personal respect for the phrase was severed when a girl who's promiscuity is a known fact among her friends (though she thinks she has hidden it from her family) still declaires that she is dedicated to the Straight Edge lifestyle. This same girl goes on to brag about her occasional bouts of underage alcohol consumption. It would be more precise to say that she doesn't do drugs. However saying she is Straight Edge, I'm sure, makes her feel more virtuous.

To those of you saying "Teenagers are teenagers. What do you expect?" I say, if we never expect anything more than promiscuity and debauchery, then they don't really have a reason to strive for it do they? Let's raise our expectations first and maybe someone will rise to meet them. I for one think it is more offensive to brand teenagers as incapable of virtue. They are capable of it, someone just has to give a damn first.

Dubious Action Hero

Have you ever needed to reach for something while in bed, but rather than actualy getting up, you reach as far as you can, pretending that you are being held captive and your fate rests on reaching that item (pen, pillow, blanket, computer cord , teddy bear, book etc)? Have you ever pretended that if only you could reach that item, scootching it closer with your fingernails or a nearby clothes hanger then you would be freed?

Perhaps that's just me.

But then again, I was that kid who tried to chew through my seat belt just to see if it could be done in case of being kidnapped.

P.S.
You really can chew through your seat belt, it just takes a while. I don't think my parents ever noticed that one of their seat belts was a bit "frayed". ;)

Hell: Endothermic or Exothermic?

“Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?”

I saw an article debating this question recently. Apparently it was an extra credit question on a science exam. You can see the original article Here. The student goes on to make his arguments from a scientific point of view. However the flaw of the article is that the question is in itself invalid since Hell is a spiritual phenomenon not a place which can be (even in jest) scientifically studied.

I, for my own insignificant sake, would like to put my brief 2 cents out there. Not that anyone really cares what I think.

Hell is neither exothermic or endothermic. Hell is a spiritual state one chooses as a result of their moral decisions and actions here on earth and into which the soul enters after death. The fires of Hell are symbolic or even metaphorical. The spiritual torment (hell) is derived by the soul's encounter with the being we refer to as God. Self deception is stripped away, the eyelids of the soul are removed. One can no longer turn away from Truth. The extent to which the Truth is intolerable to the individual soul dertermines how much "discomfort" the individual soul feels.

This certainly is a very simplified explanation of the issue and does not discuss the role the Christ plays in this dynamic. That is for another post. What I wanted to say for now, however, has been said.

John Paul II the Awesome!

*giggle*

Can You See Us?

You might be surprised at who is walking around struggling with one of these.
I am one .

College for Creative Studies Grads

I recently saw this posted about CCS grads. Made me laugh!

"If you make it out of that school alive, you can graduate in the depths of hell and it'll still be a good day. A lil rain has got nothing on CCS stress. It'll be good. Congrats to the grads. Welcome to the world of the alumni!"
-Amanda Prosch


The following is a common conversation about CCS:

Person 1: "I went to CCS!"
Person 2: "Yes, but did you GRADUATE?"
Person 1: " ... "

With as ill as I was near the end it makes me proud to be an Alumni.

Soulmates and the Habits of Cats

Stumbled across this webcomic recently. I've been enjoying the content. Here is a sampling that made me laugh because they related to my own life.
Enjoy!

A Poem to Contemplate

I encountered the following poem for the first time recently. I felt it needed to be shared.


Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII

Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.

Pour yourself out like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.

Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne,
becoming a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~

WARNING!

Click on the image to read it without the fuzziness.
It is worth it.

Trees, Treees, Trees...

Check out this guy's paintings!

This is Rob Elphinstone. Quite a cool last name, yes, but his paintings, are just as neat. :)

New Art... Necklaces

I have been doing jewelery lately. Go figure! Anyway, here are some of the pieces.

Enough Said.

Maybe someday for me too.
:(

More Trees

Another beautiful set of tree art. Mariya Zvonkovich, the artist, takes my breath away.
See it all here.

Inspiring!

Trees

I've been finding beautiful paintings of trees online lately. I've been searching in particular for trees whose branches form Gothic arches. I came across artist Tina Martin.
See her art here.

Really inspiring stuff!

I Can Relate!