The proper function of man is to live, not to exist

I would rather be ashes than dust !
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dryrot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.

-Jack London

LOLCat Bible!

Ceiling Cat Prayer

Teh Ceiling Cat of us, whu haz cheezeburger, yu be spechul

Yu ordered cheezburgerz,

Wut yu want, yu gets, srsly.

In ceiling and on teh flor.

Giv us dis day our dalee cheezburger.

And furgiv us for makin yu a cookie, but eateding it.

And we furgiv kittehs who be steelin our bukkits.

An do not let us leed into teh showa, but deliver us from teh wawter.

Ceiling Cat pwns all. He pwns teh ceiling and teh floor and walls too.

Forevur and evuhr. Amen.

(Thanks so much, LOLCat Bible Translation Project!)

Perfect Pairing: Palm Wireless Keyboard 3245WW and iPhone 4

OK, I'm not sold on this Evernote program I've recently downloaded. We're still feeling each other out and trying to decide if we're compatible or not.... I think he's a bit complicated and over-reaching, he thinks I don't appreciate his many features. But, I DID want a program for writing on my iPhone 4, and they are few and far between.

The reason I was looking for a writing program is the new ability the iPhone 4 has been given: Bluetooth keyboard compatibility! Who would have thought I'd ever have any use again for my old Palm wireless keyboard?!

The keyboard is an ingenious piece of technology. The keys are spaced just far enough apart to touch type. They don't have that 'cheap' keyboard feel. The keys depress and spring back up just like they should. And, the keyboard folds in half and is then very portable -- about the size of a big wallet.

But, having given up using my last Palm years ago when I got my first iPhone, I never thought I'd use the cool keyboard again. It sat in a moving box for the past year -- and was lost in the clutter on a shelf, unused and unwanted, for years before that.

Then, Apple decided it was time to allow Bluetooth keyboards to connect to the iPhone. Thank you, Apple! I love my iPhone, but beyond a short e-mail or a quick text message, I never really enjoyed using the iPhone's on-screen keyboard.

I remember when the update was released that allowed external keyboards. I was still using my 3G, which wasn't covered by the update. But my partner's phone, a 3GS, was included. I started looking through boxes thinking that maybe, just maybe, the old Palm keyboard was Bluetooth and not IR, and might just be compatible.

Sure enough, I found it (in near mint condition, I might add) buried under some old paperwork in a moving box. I pulled out the old Palm Wireless Keyboard 3245WW, swapped out the AA batteries -- and we paired it with the 3GS in a few seconds! There is even a convenient slide-out stand built in to the back of the keyboard. Perfectly positioned to stand the iPhone upright or set it on its side for landscape orientation.

Now, it's not a perfect solution. The basic keys work just fine. The letters, shift key, enter, the number row across the top, the backspace and the basic punctuation keys work perfectly. But, any of the additional characters and functions accessed by using the CTRL, FN or ALT keys are either non-functioning or produce, um, unexpected results....

I've been searching the web to see if someone else has chosen to use the old Palm keyboard and has figured out how to activate the other functions -- maybe a driver would be possible...?

But, in the meantime, I'm more than happy with 26 letters, 10 numbers, some basic punctuation and an enter and backspace key. Really, what writer needs anything more...?

Sent from my iPhone

Love Ya, Montreal!

Looking for a destination city that offers the excitement of a trip to a foreign land without leaving North America? Consider Montreal!
I can't say enough good things about it. The food is fantastic, the interesting neighborhoods are all within walking distance of each other -- or, at worst, a short metro ride away. Summer days are well-lit until late into the evening -- Montreal is as far north at Portland, OR.
And, best of all, the Montrealers are DAMN friendly! When you're visiting the majority of the city, where French rules, a simple Bon Jour will ease the language barrier and make communication easier.
So, book a flight, get on a train or drive north across the border -- and visit Montreal. You won't be disappointed!

Sent from my iPhone

Getting My Groove Back

Trying my damnedest to get back into blogging. Hoping my iPhone 4 that allows Bluetooth keyboard use will be just what I need to reinvigorate my writing.
Also, here's a picture of today's delicious kalua pork -- thanks Jay!

Atheists did not see the Virgin Mary in a stale taco.

LOVE THIS!



- T

Girl Makes Most of 10-Hour Snowpocalypse Delay in Pittsburgh Airport

This girl rocks!!

- T

Least Effective. Ad Placement. Evar.

At the bottom of a Planet Atheism page in Google Reader -- an ad for Mid-America Christian University.

As if!

- T

Talk Amongst Yourselves

So, today during church services in a Bay Area church, hooded gunmen entered the church, fired off a bunch of rounds, and wounded two parishioners.

Therefore, either god is all-powerful and knew this was going to happen and did nothing to stop it -- and is obviously evil

OR

he didn't know it was going to happen and took no action, or he knew it was going on and yet didn't have the power to do anything about it -- and either way he is, by all reckoning, not a god.

In the prophetic words of our savior Linda Richmond, "Talk amongst yourselves."

Happy 2010 To All

Simples Neujahrslied

Vorüber ist das alte Jahr,

Ich wünsche Glück zum neun!

Was euch das alte noch nicht war,

Soll euch das neue sein.

Ich greife zu dem vollen Glas,

Und trink es aus und sag,

Ich wünsche Jedem Alles was

Er selbst sich wünschen mag.

Ich wünsch euch Alles, was auch euch

Befriediget und reizt,

Und dass mit euern Wünschen sich

Der meinen keiner kreuzt!

So treten wir ins neue Jahr

Getrosten Mutes ein -

Und was im alten noch nicht war,

Erfülle sich im neun!

- Ludwig Eichrodt, 1827-1892

Happy Halloween!

I haven't posted in a while and, since it's now Halloween (albeit very early in the morning), I thought I'd post a creepy picture to entertain ya. Plus, it goes along with the zombie jesus theme of the previous post.

(It was either this or some cannibalism image of a bunch of christians chomping down on their savior, but I though the zombie image was more Halloween-y.)

- T

Zombie Jesus: Only the Living Dead Can Give You Eternal Life

Photo © istockphoto/Birgitte Magnus; Poster © Austin Cline

The Undead

(thanks and credit to DJ Bogtrotter [what a fantastic screen name!])

- T

Kook Christians, YOU ARE WICKED AND YOU SUCK!

From God Is For Suckers: a disgusting example of Christianity's backwards, 15th-Century attitudes and practices - - in the year 2009.



Just try and tell me there is anything redeeming about a religion that treats people -- no, CHILDREN -- in this way.

I demand you Christians never speak another word of proselytization to ANYONE until you freaks clean your own house. This includes ANY form of child abuse: the laying on of hands instead of the use of modern medicine, forcing children to attend your weird worship services, demanding your children wear religious garb of any sort in order to make them the laughing-stock of their peers -- I'm talkin' to you, yarmulke and burka fashion disasters.

And, most of all, torturing your children because they may exhibit signs of being -- GASP! -- gay or lesbian.

How dare you bring your ridiculous ancient beliefs into our modern world. Leave these silly, dangerous activities in the caves of the Negev Desert where they came from.

- T

Peggy Noonan Steps In It ('it' being shit)

Oh, Peggy Noonan.... As the leader of your Grizzled Old Party, Michael Steele, so eloquently put it: you've 'stepped in it big time' this time, haven't you?

Speaking Sunday the 17th of May on Meet The Press, Peg was expounding on the way 'forward' for the Republican Party. She'd just finished telling us all what a big tent the Republican Party was and what big tent poles the Republicans are when she then said this:

MS. NOONAN: I think the way for it to go is to try to be serious with regard to Mr. Obama's proposals, react seriously, react by speaking the English language--which is something the administration has, has not been doing so good--and by tying all of its views to philosophy in a way that is understandable to normal human beings.

Really? REALLY?!

Nooner, you really thinks that the current administration has not been speaking the English language 'good'?! Really.

First off, Nooner: the word you were stuttering about trying to find is 'well', not 'good'. I believe most 4th or 5th grade students in the US learn not to use an adjective when an adverb is required.

Second: just where have you been during the past 4 months?!? Have you heard ANY of the speeches the current President has given?!? How about his acceptance speech in Chicago last November?!? Maybe you heard the speech he gave during the inauguration?!? No? Been hiding out somewhere licking your GOP wounds with cotton in your ears?!?

And third: have you developed some debilitating form of memory loss? Have you so quickly forgotten the blundering, floundering, stammering fool your party propped up as president for the previous eight years?!

Have you forgotten such wonderful quotables as:

I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.

I've been in the Bible every day since I've been the president.

We've got a lot of relations with countries in our neighborhood.

I don't particularly like it when people put words in my mouth, either, by the way, unless I say it.

And we mustn't forget the cream of the crop:

They misunderestimated me.

There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.

Before I arrived in President, During I arrived in President.

And my personal all-time favorite:

I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.

So, Ms. Noonan, mind your p's and q's and adverbs and adjectives, retract your statement about the current administration's English - - and, most of all, do NOT forget what tormented language the most recent GOP president spoke while making our ears bleed.

- T

Thank You, Robert Ingersoll

Secularism means food and fireside, roof and raiment, reasonable work and reasonable leisure, the cultivation of the tastes, the acquisition of knowledge, the enjoyment of the arts, and it promises for the human race comfort, independence, intelligence, and above all liberty. It means the abolition of sectarian feuds, of theological hatreds. It means the cultivation of friendship and intellectual hospitality. It means the living for ourselves and each other; for the present instead of the past, for this world rather than for another.
- Robert Ingersoll

American Religious Identification Survey

I'm a bit behind-the-times here. The results of this survey have been out for a few weeks now.

Life's busy, work's busy.... Too much going on in a too-short 24-hour day. (Can you say "VACATION!"? Because I need one....)

Nonetheless, from Newsweek:

According to the American Religious Identification Survey that got Mohler's attention, the percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 percentage points since 1990, from 86 to 76 percent. The Jewish population is 1.2 percent; the Muslim, 0.6 percent. A separate Pew Forum poll echoed the ARIS finding, reporting that the percentage of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith has doubled in recent years, to 16 percent; in terms of voting, this group grew from 5 percent in 1988 to 12 percent in 2008—roughly the same percentage of the electorate as African-Americans. (Seventy-five percent of unaffiliated voters chose Barack Obama, a Christian.) Meanwhile, the number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased about fourfold from 1990 to 2009, from 1 million to about 3.6 million. (That is about double the number of, say, Episcopalians in the United States.)

Bold emphasis mine.

See the entire article here.

- T

O U C H ! !

Not for the faint of heart....



Thanks to Wired.com for this, umm, pointed article!

- T

Great SD Blog!

Hey, 619ers! Got a great blog for ya to read. This guy covers new plans and projects around the city, new architecture, restaurants, etc.

His most recent entry is about Seaport Village -- and mirrors what I've been thinking for a while. (Which is: "What is this great stretch of San Diego bayfront property doing masquerading as a Fresno strip mall?" [No offense intended, Fresnonians!])

And, no -- I'm not a fan of the all-lower-case style. But, since I really like the content, I can read past it.

- T

The Bashing Babies Ballad

The word psalms is derived from the Greek: Psalmoi, originally meaning "songs sung to a harp", from psallein "play on a stringed instrument", Ψαλμοί. -- Wikipedia

The psalms are said to be beautiful, poetry-like songs. Inspiring. Uplifting. Spiritual.

Like this beautiful ditty from the bible: Psalm 137:9

Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Well, now.... Wait a minute.... That can't be right. This is meant to be sung accompanied by a HARP?!

I know, I know -- that was the King James Version. Maybe it's a bad translation -- ya know, a less uplifting version of the bible....

Other versions must present this psalm correctly. Ya know, more inspiring. More harp-worthy.

Let's see....

New American Standard Bible
How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones Against the rock.

GOD'S WORD Translation
Blessed is the one who grabs your little children and smashes them against a rock.

American King James Version
Happy shall he be, that takes and dashes your little ones against the stones.

American Standard Version
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones Against the rock.

Bible in Basic English
Happy is the man who takes your little ones, crushing them against the rocks.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Blessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock.

Darby Bible Translation
Happy he that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock.

English Revised Version
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock.

Webster's Bible Translation
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

World English Bible
Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock. By David.

And, my fave of this medley of melodies . . .

Young's Literal Translation
O the happiness of him who doth seize, And hath dashed thy sucklings on the rock!

Ahhhhh..... Those are MUCH better. (Imagine them sung to the tune of "This Land Is Your Land" -- you'll see just how BEAUTIFUL this psalm can be.....)

- T

[thanks to bible.cc for the quotes!]

I came not to send peace, but a sword

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. - Matthew 10:34 (King James Version)

Really? REALLY?! This is what 'his holiness', that peace-loving Jesus everyone seems so attached to - - - THIS is what he preached?!

I had no idea. Ugh.

- T