The 8 Planets

A new background image, with a bit of tweaking. :)

p.s: Silly Bryan putting comment moderation on. Fixed now. Humans are fallible!

p.p.s: I'll stop listening to the Clash when I stop thinking I can change the world.

:)

White Ninja, he tickles me so.

White Ninja Follows a Recipe

Yargh!

Forgiveness

Matthew 5:43 - 48
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your friends, hate your enemies.' But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in Heaven. For He makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even the pagans* do that! You must be perfect - just as your Father in Heaven is perfect."
*Note: Pagan in this text refers to people who have not read/heard the Gospel, and is not a reference to neopaganism.

Now that's a double barrel shot, aint it? How can one love their enemies if they surely don't wish to be loved by you? Such a standing requires some of the bravery Ghandi was talking about when he said, "love is for the brave". Whether such bravery comes from the Holy Spirit, some internal mustering or elsewhere, such bravery is required to love others and forgive them. Later in the same sermon Jesus explains this;

Matthew 6:9-15
"This, then, is how you should pray:
'Our Father in heaven:
May your holy name be honoured;
may your kingdom come;
may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need.
Forgive us the wrongs we have done,
as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.
Do not bring us to hard testing,
but keep us safe from the Evil One.'
If you forgive others the wrongs they have done to you, your Father in Heaven will also forgive you. But is you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs you have done."

So we are charged to love and forgive others as a consequence of love to seek salvation, because how can one claim to love God if one cannot love their neighbour? From 1 John 4:19 - 21

We love because God first loved in us. If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen. The command that Christ has given us is this: Whoever loves God must love others also.

So love we must, and we can even draw strength from those around us if we need it. We all struggle, but together we are stronger and better for it.

Nonviolence and cowardice are contradictory terms. Nonviolence is the greatest virtue, cowardice the greatest vice. Nonviolence springs from love, cowardice from hate. Nonviolence always suffers, cowardice would always inflict suffering. Perfect nonviolence is the highest bravery. Nonviolent conduct is never demoralizing, cowardice always is.

Peace will not come out of a clash of arms
but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.

Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind.
It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees.
An evil system never deserves such allegiance.
Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil.
A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.

Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.

Sex

Teenagers whose iPods are full of sexual lyrics start having sex sooner then those who prefer other songs, a study has found.

Whether it's hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of popular music aimed at teenagers contains sexual overtones. Its influence on their behavior appears to depend on how the sex is portrayed, researchers say.

Songs depicting men as "sex-driven studs", women as sex objects and explicit references to sex acts are more likely to trigger early sexual behavior than those where sexual references are more veiled and relationships appear more committed, the study found.

Teenagers who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or participate in other sexual activities within the following two years as were teenagers who listened to little or no sexually degrading music.

among heavy listeners, 51 percent started having sex within two years of the start of the survey, versus 29 percent of those who said they listened to little or no sexually degrading music. Exposure to a lot of sexually degrading music "gives them a specific message about sex", said the lead author, Steven Martino, a researcher for Rand Corporation in Pittsburgh. "Boys learn they should be relentless in the pursuit of women and girls learn to view themselves as sex objects", he said. "We think this really lowers kid's inhibitions and makes them less thoughtful about sexual decisions."

The study was based on telephone interviews with 1461 participants aged 12 to 17. Most participants were virgins when first questioned in 2001. Further interviews were conducted in 2002 and 2004 to see if music had influenced their behavior.

The study appears in the August issue of Pediatrics.
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The above was published by Australian Associated Press today and I unfortunately cannot say these results are surprising. Time and again I have been told by people 5 years or more my junior that sex is trendy, doesn't hurt anyone and is just a barrel of fun. It's the grown up thing to do, so that makes it cool to do it, talk about it and show as much promiscuity as possible.

Bull-fucking-shit.

Sex is meaningless without a relationship, and unless that relationship means something to you more then getting your rocks off then sex (as far as I think) is off the menu. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but the act of going with someone for the purpose of self-pleasure is extremely selfish.

I was at the pub two weeks ago with my good buddy. He told me that all these people here were out for their own enjoyment, looking to pleasure themselves and have fun. Nothing wrong with that at all. But sex is one of those human things that will mess with your emotions. Hindsight is the only way to be sure you are thinking with your head not your genitals, and if you don't know which is which and you just happen to be in a relationship then I can tell you now there is going to be trouble along the way.

Want to avoid that confusion? Sex comes after love. Don't use it to kid yourself and don't use it as a substitute for romance. It will only end in tears. I'm not trying to be condescending or lecturing, but what ever happened to that idea of putting an old head on young shoulders?

Please Don't Kill My Antelope

Please don't kill my antelope
he hasn't bothered you.
He hasn't kicked you in the shin
or spit inside your shoe.

He hasn't bitten off your nose
or stomped on your rear end.
Please don't kill my antelope,
my antelope's my friend.


Hmmm.. this must be what they call procrastination,

Lame Jokes.

A grasshopper walks into a bar. The barman notices and says:
"Hey, we've got a cocktail named after you".
The grasshopper looks confused and says:
"What, Trevor?"

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: Because it felt like it

Q: What do you call an angry bee?
A: A grumble-bee

Q: What did the orange say to the lemon?
A: "Hello lemon"

You: Ask me if I'm a firetruck
Them: Are you a firetruck?
You: No

Q. Why did the boy fall of the bike?
A. Cause someone through a fridge at him.

Q: Why did the plane crash?
A: Because the pilot was a tomato

Q: Why did Susie fall off her bike?
A: Because she was a fish

Q: What's the difference between a duck?
A: One of it's legs is both the same.

Q: How many elephants can you fit in a mini?
A: Four, two in the front and two in the back.

Q: How do you know if there's an elephant in your fridge?
A: There's a set of footprints in the butter

Q: How do you know if there's two elephants in your fridge?
A: There's two sets of elephants in the butter

Q: How do you know if there's three elephants in your fridge?
A: There's three sets of footprints in the butter

Q: How do you know if there's four elephants in your fridge?
A: There's a mini parked outside.

Q: How do you put an elephant in a refridgerator?
A: Open the door, put the elephant in, close the door.

Q: How do you put a giraffe in a refridgerator?
A: You can't while the elephant is in there.

Q: All the animal kingdom have a meeting together in the middle of the jungle, which animal doesn't attend?
A: The elephant of course, he is stuck inside the refridgerator.

Q. what do you call a fish without an eye?
A. fsh

Q. whats red and looks like a bucket?
A. a red bucket.

Q. whats green and looks like a bucket?
A. an undercover red bucket.

Q. what do you call a gorilla with an AK47?
A. sir.

Q. why did bobby fall off the trampoline?
A. bobby was a stove

Q: Why do elephants paint the soles of their feet yellow?
A: To hide upside-down in bowls of custard

Q: Why do elephants paint their toenails red?
A: To hide in strawberry patches

Q. Why did the elephant paint his balls red?
A. so he could hide in apple trees

Q. How did tarzan die?
A. picking apples

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST
A bear walks into a bar, and after a few minutes, he chews a massive chunk off the corner of the bar. having finally got the barkeep's attention, he asked for a bourbon. "sorry sir, we dont serve you druggo types in here" he replies and walks away. disgraced, the bear stands up and yells "im no addict!" to which the barkeep responds "oh? and what about that bar bit you ate?"

Dogs

Humans are smarter then dogs. Before you start saying "wow, what amazing insight Bryan" I think I should explain how I positively reached that conclusion.

There are degrees of intelligence, and intelligence is best measured by the ability of an animal to survive in their natural habitat. Humans are deemed to be very smart for their ability to solve complex problems that other species cannot. This is a reflection of the human brain being the main organ for humans as opposed to sensory organs. This makes humans one-of-a-kind in Mother Nature's circus as other animals rely on keen senses to survive. Observe the owl with his incredible hearing and eyesight, or the koala's powerful sense of smell that can detect poison in leaves. Humans don't have these abilities. We have a powerful brain that processes the data from all the sensory organs to solve a complex problem while none of the senses are finely tuned. In other words, humans do not have the best eyesight, speed, hearing, smell, or even very good senses (relatively speaking) but the ability of the brain to comprehend different data at the rate it does makes up for these deficiencies against highly skilled animals.

How does this prove we are smarter then dogs? Well, if we consider intelligence as only being relative to an animals ability to survive in a natural habitat we must first define what a dog's natural habitat is. Dogs have long-since been domesticated and we must queary whether dogscan infact survive without humans. While cats for the most part continue to hunt long after being domesticated, it is safe to assume that most dogs will not survive in the same way, especially dogs that are specifically bred to be an aid to humans (poodles, spotters, setters, etc). Attack dogs like German Shepards and Pitbulls may stand a better chance but ultimately they rely on humans for survival. Thus it is safe to say that a dogs natural enviroment is a human (especially but not exclusively domestic) enviroment.

Now, the ability to survive bit. As dogs rely on humans we cannot judge intelligence by the ability to hunt or seek shelter from predators. Owing to their enviroment we can only go on the interactions dogs have with humans. Dogs will tend to bark as a way to communicate with us, chiefly that they are hungry, wish to go outside, desire attention or that a strange person (to them) is around. Their inability to differ forms of communication to better get the message across means that they are relying on the human brain to figure out what they want. That relience is a sign of human superiority in language. Another sign of human intelligence over canines (which is what got me started thinking about this whole thing) is the showing of teeth. A dog will seldom raise his lip to reveal his teath unless he is making a threat. It follows that when a dog sees a stranger (or even their owner) show teeth then it is a threat to them. As any human will tell you, a smile is not a threat. Dogs, not being able to comprehend this, show that humans hold the trump card.

Don't get me wrong about this. I like dogs, especially the big fluffy huskies and labradors. But humans are ultimately smarter. Yay humans.

The Power of One

It occured to me coming home on the train today that "one" is indeed a strange word. If we think of the rule taught in primary school - that vowel,consanant,e produces a long vowel sound - then "one" could very well be the singular word that doesn't follow it. If it did then we would pronounce it "own" instead of "won.

While the above is enough to title "one" as irregular, the plot thickens deeper. The pronunciation of "one" if it is not "own" should be "on", the short vowel sound of "o". A preschooler will tell you that this is not the case, and we are left with an incredible puzzle to solve over the reason "one" is free from the confines of normal English.

Talking with the old man uncovers one possible reason. Most irregular vowels in English are from cases whereby the pronunciation has changed but the spelling has not. We postulated that the original pronunciation was most probably "une" (as in dune), a variation of Latin and French. With a spelling change from elongating the 'u' we get the pronunciation "own" (spelt one). The change in pronunciation from there most likely happened in the 14th Century with the Great Vowel Shift (the same period also saw the formation of the 26-letter English Alphabet and the publication of Holy Bible in English). After this time we have the modern pronunciation of "won" but the spelling has not changed.

Interesting. Is "one" the only word who rebels against this particular rule? Perhaps. I cannot think of any more off the top of my head, but that isn't to say that they don't exist. This is English! It's meant to be dynamic!

1 1 was a racehorse,

2 2 was 1 2.

1 1 1 a race 1 day,

2 2 1 1 2!

Newspapers, Hearts and the Bible

Trawling through Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald I found a most beautiful thing. Read below what was under Public Notices:

"Many thanks to Mary our Mother and Jesus Christ for returning mum and I home safely from Lebanon.

Dear St Christopher, you have inherited a beautiful name - - Christbearer - - as a result of a wonderful legend that while carrying people across a raging stream you also carried the Child Jesus. Teach us to be true Christbearers to those who do not know Him. Protect all drivers who often transport those who bear Christ within them. Amen.

God, the Apostle, St Jude Thaddeus, was a faithful servent and friend of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your Church honours him and invokes his intercession universally as the patron of those in difficulty who have found no other help. Grant that through St Jude's intercessions, we may know your will for us, have the strength to do it, and enjoy the consolations of your Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, may St Jude intercede for us in all our necessities, tribulations and sufferings. With him and with all the saints may we praise you with your Son and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen."

Now, this alone I found very special and heart warming, but then it was followed up by some awesome words at Sunday @ 7, "(that) The Word of God is written on the tablet of our hearts". What this basically means (to me) is that deep down we all know, or have the capacity to know at least, what is the right thing and what is the wrong thing. What's important is that we listen to that heart of ours, much like the boy did in Paul Coelho's The Alchemist. No matter what it is you are doing, planning to do, thinking about, whatever, down is your heart of hearts you know the right thing.

The right thing isn't always the easy thing, unfortunately. And sometimes we fall prey to going down the road because it's the easy thing to do. That is why God's Holy Spirit provides us with an incredible book to help us know the folly of this mindset. Now, the Bible doesn't say "never do the easy thing" but by studying the different stories and books we can give ourselves ammunition through faith to back up our heart when it makes a call. To me that is just incredible, and I do believe that is one of the chief reasons this book was penned.

This is why I don't wake up in the morning. It avoids that taste :p

http://www.whiteninjacomics.com/comics/upearly.shtml

Bryan cracks it with Microsoft

I refused to let my first entry on this wondiferous new space be full of malice and anger, but this is the second so its all good.

You may wonder what has prompted me to uproot my blog from msn spaces to here and the fact is that I've had enough of Microsoft and their shenanigans. Coming from someone who is a self-confessed anti-capitalist this may come as no great shock, but this particular company has got me shitted and I need to vent, which is why I have a blog.

Microsoft started as a company in the late 1970's and struggled into the 1980's. Their premise was to "revolutionise" the computer with a windows system as opposed to text only screens (e.g DOS). I say "revolutionise" because the company was not actually doing anything new, merely copying Steve Jobs from Macintosh who was in turn ripping off a Xerox idea. Until computers became mainstream use both companies struggled and due to the relatively small demand and a dedicated staff Microsoft managed to do something it has not achieved since 1991: release a program that ran properly. The laste 1980's saw a boom in the demand for home computers as well as offices and Windows version 3.1 was pumped out. In a brainwave move Bill Gates made what would be a killing move on opposing operating systems by ensuring MS DOS and Windows were packaged with a new PC, thereby ensuring a market for his products. This move was completed thanks to an American Government that a) knew little about computers other then you could put them on missiles, b) were staunch supporters for big businesses and c) equally opposed to the notion of deregulation. This enviroment was key to Microsoft's rapid mould-like growth.

What this has turned into is an epidemic whereby PC users the world over are forced to use Microsoft products. Even Apple has admitted defeat to Microsoft's office programs to the point they are iBook compatible. So we are slaves to the whim.

I do not blame the programmers. In fact, I refuse to. No programmer ever wants to put out a shabby product but the mere demand and rapid use of the system has thrown up incredible problems. To most businesses this would be a problem but Gates knows that the world needs Microsoft and so does not much care for user problems.

The little guy gets trampled. In this case: me. The problems I encountered with msn spaces are too numerouse, but I finally cracked it after the damn thing removed half my entries, changed my settings and subsribed me to something called "window's live" because, in the true American Way, Bigger is Better. Bullfuck.

I nearly coped, I really did, but msn took the cake when it deleted all my photos. I've had it. They have shown they don't need me, and I don't really care for them so everyone can get stuffed. Now I'm here, I hopefully haven't sworn too much to get ejected and for those who don't know:

This is My Blog. It is a vent hole. A release. When something is on my mind I endeavor to put it on here to enable me to think about it while I write. It's a random blog. Deal with it. Now where are my pants?

Carpe Diem

If you keep building up tomorrow with promises you'll have nothing but a bunch if empty yesterdays.

LIVE FOR THE DAY! SIEZE IT! SIEZE IT LIKE YOU NEVER HAVE BEFORE!

Thankyou Janis Joplin:

"If you have a cat for one day, man. Lets say that you want a cat for 365 days. You got him for one day. Well I'll tell you that one day, that'd be your life. Like say you could cry about the other 364 days right. But with that one day man, it'd be your life. And you gotta call that love man. Cause that's what it is. If you got it today you don't worry about tomorrow man. Cause you don't need it."

So live in love guys. Live for today.