Dear Mom and Dad,

Please stop listening to Glenn Beck and taking him seriously. Please stop repeating Glenn's talking points as though they're fact. Please stop saying things like "we should send [the detainees at Gitmo] back to their families in boxes with ribbons on them!" Please stop acting like Obama has ascended from Hell to murder us all. Please stop acting like the government is a single, monolithic force of pure evil. Please stop telling me what I believe since I'm a liberal. Please stop saying "liberal" like it's a filthy word. Please stop asking me if I have "buyer's remorse" as though I were singing Obama's praises when I've told you, time and time again, that I voted him for him because McCain and Palin were worse. Please stop being willing to trade your freedom in for "safety" while pretending that doing so is the best way of preserving freedom. Please stop being so gleeful when something goes wrong because it "proves" that everything is Obama's fault. Please stop saying that it's dangerous to try the Christmas bomber in a normal court, as though it being dangerous is the same as it being wrong. Please stop saying "interrogate" when you mean "torture." Please stop saying that we need to torture people to keep us safe. Please start being sane again ... I don't know how much more of this I can take.

-- Your daughter

( Lupin III vs. Detective Conan )

( Turtles Forever )

"Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve."
-- Luke 22:3

"Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly."
-- John 13:26-27

That's right, dad: nowhere in the King James version of the bible does it say that Satan entered Judas.

And, yes, dad, when the bible says that Satan entered Judas, clearly, entered doesn't mean entered - it totally means something else. I don't know what but something. Because nowhere in the King James version of the bible does it say that Satan enters anyone - least of all, Judas.

And, you're right, dad: when I argue passionately about something, I should definitely make sure I know what I'm talking about. Since I've never read the bible, or listened to people who know what they're talking about, or have actually given thought to my opinion, or anything like you have.

But, you know, dad, there is one thing that doesn't makes sense to me: my brother is the "anti-religion" because he's a Dischordian who worships Eris, but me, the atheist, I'm religious. How does that work, exactly? And, for someone who's agnostic and completely not religious, well, you seem awfully touching when it comes to criticizing the bible. Just saying.

PS: I completely don't understand what the point of Jesus Christ Superstar is despite it being my favorite rock opera in addition to listening to the soundtrack ever since I was little - the point of the whole thing just went over my dainty little head.

Which totally has nothing to do with the Jewish priests wanting to keep their power or Judas being torn between his friendship with Jesus and the worry over the possible destruction of their people. It totally has to do with Jesus opening the gates of heaven because two morons in the Garden of Eden ate some fruit. Totes.

It took me a total of 70 hours (since I started the game over back at the 34 hour mark the first time through because I realized a better strategy that required a restart) but I've finally done it: I've beaten Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. I didn't quite find all the beans but I got Mario, Luigi, and Bowser up to level 40 (which means nothing if you haven't played the game). So, go me! :)

On the whole, I liked the game but I really wish that I had been able to skip some of the cut scenes :D Everyone loves to talk in this game and there's only so quickly you can skip through it - I noticed this more on the second play through. The first time through, it wasn't so bad. Also, once I figured out what I'd been doing wrong, beating the final Boss wasn't too hard. Of course, it took about an hour of play on the final boss to figure out what I needed to do (which is what required the restart). -_- Yes, I *can* be a little slow at times. But I won in the end so there!

Unfortunately, now this means I need to buy another $30 DS game ... Still, I feel accomplished ;)

What next?

I've been watching quite a few atheist vs. theist debates lately and there has been one "argument" that I've heard over and over again which is starting to drive me nuts. It is as follows and said in a smug tone of self-satisfied cleverness:

"Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence!"

Now, this is true as far as you can't say anything isn't possible just because you find no evidence for it. Proving a negative is very difficult for this reason. However, what annoys me is how the person who says this acts as though this sentence is the clincher for their argument. "You can't prove God doesn't exist so He must exist!"

I mean, how does that follow? Since when is having no evidence of something proof of something?

Sure, absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, but it sure as hell isn't evidence of presence either! It's an asinine proposition and I'm constantly surprised that it's never called out. I mean, I can make the same statement about unicorns and bigfoot - just because you've never seen a real picture of either of these things doesn't mean they can't exist somewhere and just haven't been found yet. Therefore, since you can't prove unicorns don't exist, they exist.

That is stupid.

I'm not sure why these people of faith feel the need to pretend that their beliefs are based on scientific evidence anyway - faith is, by definition, believing in something without evidence. Like, if I believe that a student who has always done poorly on tests will get an A on the final, that is faith. The evidence tells me that this student probably won't pass, yet I believe he will since my faith isn't based on evidence.

Another thing: I'd also like to know where some of these evangelicals get the idea that one can decide what they want to believe. I can't just suddenly decide to believe that the moon is made from cheese or that we're all actually in the Matrix. Just believe, just believe. It's not something I have a choice about! I can't believe in Jesus any more than I can believe that my brother is the reincarnated Napoleon. I could pretend to believe, which is what I did for the brief period when I was 12 and became a Born Again(tm) Christian. However, I'm not willing to devote my life to something that I know isn't true.

I honestly don't care what people believe. My brother's girlfriend believes in fairies. It doesn't bother me because she's not acting as though I'm a bad person for not believing in them or that it's imperative that I start believing. Likewise, I don't ask her to prove the existence of fairies to me - if she wants to believe in something I think is a little silly, that's her business and I have no desire to bully her about it.

You're a young Earth creationist? Fine. You believe in a literal interpretation of Genesis? Fine. You believe that a Jew named Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead two thousand years ago and is the son of God and is with us even today? Fine. You believe that everything and everyone must have been designed by an intelligent creator (who doesn't have to be God, totally, we swear!)? Fine. Just don't pretend that you're basing this on anything other than faith. Don't undermine science and the education of our children. It's bad enough that "under God" was shoehorned into the pledge in the 50s to save us from the Godless pinko commies - at least that is just a couple of words which no child really pays attention to.

But crippling a child's understanding of science ... that's a lot worse. And there's no need for it - plenty of scientists are religious, so a religious parent need not worry about that.

Because faith isn't based on evidence - therefore, no amount of evidence would convince a person of strong faith of anything they didn't already hold as true. By the same token, no amount of faith could convince me that God exists or that the Earth is 6000 years old. I need evidence.

... Where was I? Oh, yes. Stop saying "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" as though it actually proves something. Thanks.

Dear Citizens Bank (TM),

How do I get an overlimit fee if I haven't used this card to make a purchase in over a year?

Oh, because my balance before you arbitrarily lowered my credit limit to $910 was $913? And, because you just happened to choose a new limit for me that was three dollars under my current balance, you've decided to charge me a $40 overlimit fee?

Yeah, I don't think so.

I'd also like to know why there are *two* purchase finance charges instead of only one. Could it be that, in addition to charging me a $40 fee because I didn't foresee you guys lowering my limit to three dollars below what my balance would be a month ago, you have also raised my APR?

I don't think that flies either.

Expect an angry call in the morning when you guys are actually open.

- Pissed off Cardholder

Today, I've been talking over mic on skype for almost eight hours today. Almost, but not quite, straight. Six hours of which were spent talking to the same person. Granted, most of that six hours was devoted to going over adverbs and the order of adjectives (two subjects I hope not to hear about again for at least two weeks), but, still, that's a long time to listen to someone talk. I can't decide if I'm a sucker or if I'm in love. -_-

Hi all and welcome to my blog.

I've just about had a heart attack. I kid you not. I'm still a little shaky.

While I was surfing around on yahoo, I found a link to http://fanhistory.com/wiki and I looked up some author's I knew. After I did that, for a lark, I decided to look myself up. I figured someone with my name (Holli) would probably be listed as an author. And there was a Holli listed ... it was me. Now, I can be narcissistic at times, but I've never thought that I made any huge splashes in the fandom world so it would not have occurred to me to put myself on a site like this. So, someone else must have.

Believe me, I was pretty freaked until I read the fine print about how the article about me had been created by a fanfiction.net bot and that no human person had edited the page. That made me feel marginally better. Then, I made the mistake of looking up my other fandom name - albapuella. *That* also had an entry that was me. However, unlike the Holli entry, this one had no such reassuring fine print. Since I didn't create the page, someone else must have. What I can't think of is who. Or why.

I mean, it's not like I'm super worried about my privacy as such. But it's not like I'm a huge presence in any of the fandoms I've been a part of. 14 short stories in about as many fandoms doesn't make me a big name. At least, I wouldn't have thought it would. I really can't imagine why anyone would take the time to make a page about me. It's flattering but kind of scary too. I can't really explain it.

Of course, maybe someone was just making a page for every member of the fanfiction rant community since that's basically what the albapuella page is about. As far as it's "about" anything since the information is pretty sketchy. And I don't plan on expanding it :D I think I'm going to quietly forget it exists.

Quote of the Entry:
"It's great to be known, but it's even better to be known as strange." ~ Chairman Takeshi Kaga of the Gourmet Academy

Dear Collection Agency,

If I had $24,195, don't you think I would have paid my bill by now? Also, feel free to "complete a data sheet ... and forward it to [your] client". In fact, why don't I save you the trouble and do it for you!

Employment verification: Up until last week, I was on unemployment. Now, I'm working at a school on a grant that doesn't even offer me insurance.

Conformation of real estate holdings: I don't own any real estate.

Conformation of assets: I don't have any.

There you go. Have fun with that. Feel free to take me to court and try to get blood from this stone.

- Loan payer

P.S. If the lender had been willing to settle for less than two payments of $500.00 a month, I could have been paying this bill now. As it is, I haven't received a bill from the lender in months since they seem to have the same attitude you do: they want all of it now. Spoiled children, the lot of you. It's funny though; the lender did cash all the checks they received from me ... I wonder if they put it towards my balance or if they used the money to blow their noses.

I just had a disappointing, yet predictable in hindsight, back and forth with someone on youtube.

I watched this video about this creationist guy who was telling other Christians on youtube to send messages about Christianity to random people from random videos. I thought this was pretty horrible - who the heck do these people think they are, spamming people they don't even know with a message that might not even interest the person they send it to? It's not very damn polite for one thing. Besides, there's rules against that sort of thing on youtube.

So, I went to this "Spam for God" video (it has a different title, of course) and I came across this comment:

"i just picked a random topic and shared the gospel. fang is right we can do this once a day for sure and if not make up for it on a different day with multiple sharings. God totally made internet possible for the gospel."

And I thought to myself, "Man, what a jerk you are." Then I thought to myself, "Hey, why not give him a taste of his own medicine if he thinks it's so cool to bother people?" ( Read more... )

"I don't want to pay for someone else's health problems."

"I don't want to pay for some fatty who should have exercised more and ate less."

"I don't want my money to be spent taking care of people who are too lazy to help themselves."

"I don't think people who don't have jobs good enough to get good health insurance should get a free ride."

Well, how about we flip this around?

"I don't want to pay for a police investigation because your car was stolen."

"I don't want to pay for evidence processing when your sister's been assaulted - she shouldn't have gone out dressed like that and gotten drunk."

"I don't want my money to be spent helping people who were dumb enough to be ripped off by fraud get justice."

Who pays for the police? Why, our taxes do! And why do we have police? To keep people safe, of course.

Well, why shouldn't we pay to keep people healthy too?

Just a thought ;)

So, you can't even stop walking for a minute to talk to me. We haven't seen each other in over half a year: I was excited and happy that I was finally able to catch you but, clearly, the same wasn't true for you. I had the feeling that, had I stopped walking with you, you would have left me behind. And, actually, when I hung back and said I had to go back to my mom who was waiting for me, that's exactly what you did.

I don't know what I did to you, exactly. I called you on your birthday. I invited you to a party (not that you replied to the e-mail at all). Sure, I waited until the last minute to invite you to that party but I figured I'd invite you when you called to wish me a happy birthday ... which you never did. And that hurt but I figured you were just busy or it slipped your mind.

Well, you did have that guy with you when you were at the fair - you expected me to know him. How the heck was I supposed to know him? You haven't spoken to me since New Years. And he wasn't mentioned in that e-mail you sent me three months ago.

But is that it? When you have a boyfriend, you don't have time for me? You don't even have a lousy five minutes to waste at a crummy fair to stop walking and actually talk to me face to face rather than side by side?

What bullshit.

I'm not going to contact you. If you want to be my friend, you'll contact me. Or will you wait to contact me until you break up with this boyfriend and you need a shoulder to cry on? Why does *that* sound familiar to me?

I don't mind being there for you - that's what being a friend is. But I have to wonder how much of a friend *you* are when you can't afford me the courtesy that I would give someone I didn't even like who wanted to talk to me. Were you in *that* much of a hurry? Or did you just not care?

I have beaten Super Mario World! All 96 exits, baby! Yay! w00t! Other expressions of glee!

Yes, I do rock, thank you!

No, I haven't used enough exclamation points yet!

But, now I have!

Sorry, I'll return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

In a second. Let me bask.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

...

Now, I'm done.

Hi all and welcome to my blog.

Well folks, it's official: I need a boyfriend. I need one right away. ( Read more... )
Quote of the Entry:

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~ Dr. Seuss

Hi all and welcome to my blog.

Well, here I am - a year later and another year older. I realized today that I'll miss more about my job than the money and the insurance: there are some good people there of whom I'm fond. I have some reasons to feel disappointed about today but I also have reasons to feel good too. People who I expected to forget (or never thought knew) remembered and people who I hoped would remember forgot. I feel misty-eyed and I'm not sure if it's because I'm happy or disappointed. Too much of both and not enough of either, I guess.

I'll be going out tonight with my mom and brother. I'll be staying in Friday, drinking with some friends. On Sunday, I'll be going with my parents to eat some overpriced Chinese. I haven't been so busy in months.

I don't have any powerful words to say about my birthday - being 24 is unlikely to be much different than being 23 - but I make an entry every year about this time and I do so hate to break tradition.

Quote of the Entry:
"Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think." ~ Jean de la Bruyère

"Heute ha-ha-habe ich Geburtstag!" ~ Die Prinzen

Hi all,

Well, today, I received my evaluation from my boss. I should have gotten my actual written evaluation before I met with my boss but that didn't happened for me. Everyone else got theirs in their mailbox. Me? I didn't get it until after my boss read it off to me when I was in her office for my evaluation meeting. God forbid I go into that meeting prepared. God forbid I get any indication that apparently no one is happy with my performance until three minutes before she tells me that I don't have a job next year.( Read more... )

Hi all.

This entry is f-locked because I'd really rather not lose my job for calling out this person I'm going to talk about for the idiot she is. ETA: Losing my job is no longer an issue so I no longer care who reads this.

Since my college situation is still up in the air, I've been working full time as a special ed tutor at my mom's school. I'm a one on one so I go with my student to all of heris classes. This means that I sit through a lot of 'basic' courses. I'm frequently bored out of my mind. Sometimes, I contribute to class discussions for want of anything better to do. If a teacher is wrong about something, I usually talk to them after class or before class the next day - I know better than to question a teacher's authority in front of their students. I'm always polite: I understand that criticism, even well intentioned and correct criticism can be hard to take. I'm also willing to admit when I've misunderstood a point the teacher has tried to make.

Now, my student switched into a new English class about a month or so ago. I was originally pleased about this as his former English teacher had a bad habit of mispronouncing words and had once told the class that Mormons don't believe in Jesus Christ - I suppose their Church is called "Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" for giggles.

However, now, I'm approaching my breaking point. Let me tell you why.
( Read more... )
Quote of the Entry:

"It is much simpler to buy books than to read them and easier to read them than to absorb their contents. Too many men slip early out of the habit of studious reading, and yet that is essential..." ~ Sir William Osler

"Those who can, do.
Those who can't, teach." ~ unknown to me

Today during my student's Health class, we watched a show called "You on a Diet". It was fairly interesting and it seemed to lack the shame element I've come to associate with diet programs of that nature ("You fat slug! Do you want to die, you miserable maggot! Give me twenty push-ups!") although there were far too many close-ups of people eating for my tastes. Thin or fat, I don't enjoy watching people eat from a "distance" of two inches.
( Because this gets long and rambly. Also, 'amn't' is totally a word! )

Quotes of the Entry:
"The first law of dietetics seems to be: if it tastes good, it's bad for you." ~ Issac Asimov

"I gotta work out. I keep saying it all the time. I keep saying I gotta start working out. It's been about two months since I've worked out. And I just don't have the time. Which uh... is odd. Because I have the time to go out to dinner. And uh... and watch TV. And get a bone density test. And uh... try to figure out what my phone number spells in words." ~ Ellen DeGeneres

Stolen from Faynia :)

How many total songs?
1761, 4.3 days, 6.15 GB

Sort by song title
First: ... Baby One More Time -- Britney Spears
Last: Zuviel Liebe Kann Dich Töten -- OOMPH!

Sort by time
Shortest: The Mustard (chipmunk version)--Buffy the Vampire Slayer (0:13)
Longest: I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) (12:00)

Sort by artist
First: Still Alive -- ???
Last: STEP BY STEP -- Ziggy

Top five played songs?
1 - Save Yourself -- Stabbing Westward
2 - I Hate Everything About You -- 3 Days Grace
3 - Just the Girl -- The Click Five
4 - Smells Like Teen Spirit -- Nirvana
5 - 1985 -- Bowling for Soup

Find the following words. How many songs show up?
Sex: 4
Death: 3
Love: 100
You: 193
Home: 9
Boy: 6
Girl: 57