I was looking at some TF2 stuff on youtube... cosplays and such...

I want to go to Otakon now. T__T

Things were alright until the user: Alien Love Child jumped the boat here.

The OP posted an article about how a pastor in San Diego was going to be fined unless he got a permit (upwards to a couple thousand dollars) to have weekly Bible studies in his house.  Eventually city officials dropped the fines for numerous reasons.

Emily: "The apology letter linked to from the news article I posted says that the Officer who did the interrogating acted on “unclear language” in the zoning laws. And the council response linked on the same page says the concern was over 7 or 8 additional cars parked along the side of the road.ALC: "I fail to see how responding to noise and parking violations is being “overly strict”. I’d call the cops if there were a bunch of wackadoodles yelling to their crazy god and parking on my lawn, too."

Emily: "There were no noise violations reports from what I read, and the people were parked on the street legally (which is why the citation was dropped, with a suggestion that the people park on the pastor’s lot or utilize public transportation rather than park on the street to make more room for others to park). So either you didn’t read the article and other documents, or you’re such a militant anti-Christian that you didn’t feel the need to before you drew conclusions and skewed the report. Good for you. Fight the power."

ALC: "naw, i didn’t read the article cause i don’t really care. it was either some crazy religious nuts being too loud or some cop being an --, neither one is a big surprise to anybody

Never a day goes without a fantasy pervading my mind
Thoughts of never-ending fulfillment
Melancholy sunlight beaming from an isolated window
Shining on glossy wood floorboards
A quaint room spacious for two
Emanating a warm invitation
Take my hand, beloved
As I take you for long embrace
Your countenance filled with unimaginable contentment
Evident by our sparse tears
My face brushing your cheek
Your aroma is distinct and heart-stirring
Together we form an unerring puzzle
Accompany my lead
And calmly sway with me
Tread with me through alluring melodies

Slowly...

Steady...

Strings and ivories permeating our souls
Entwining us into unison

For eternity

I then see where I am
Fantasizing only a reverie
But if dreams never become reality
Then I may just forever dream

And perhaps never wake up

Summer 1:
Monday to Friday
8:30 - 11:30 - Statistical Methods (With Slaughteeeerrrrrrrr)



Fall:
MWF:
8:00 - 8:50 - Physiological Psychology
12:00 - 12:50 - Life of Christ

MF
10:00 - 10:50 - Psychology Colloquium

TTR
10:35 - 11:50 - History and Systems of Psychology (Slaughteeerrrrrr)
12:00 - 1:15 - Group Dynamics (Moooooreeeeee Slauuuuughteeeeerrr)
2:50 - 4:05 - Understanding Human Diversity (Tentative)

Yay! 18 hours!  It's going to be absolutely brutal totally fun!!!!!!

As some of you know, I have a number of frustrations with Toms Shoes and my school's partnership with it.

There's a certain professor at my school who has been in the missions field for over 20 years, and has a doctorate in International Development.  After talking to him at lunch today and having a great time, I've come to a stark realization.

I want to also pursue my education in anthropology...

Siigggh.  To many fields of study. So little time.

Psychology. Sociology. Philosophy. Theology. And now Anthropology.

At least they're all somewhat interconnected.  It's not like I'm adding biochemical engineering in the mix or something, lol.

Anyway, perhaps I will expound on my frustrations with Toms Shoes on another date.  If anyone is interesting in what Dr. Bill Prevette has to say, follow the link:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=598034024&ref=ts#/topic.php?uid=90474790481&topic=7860

One of the greatest things that moves me to no end is seeing people as counterexamples to my cyclical cynical idea that humans have very little or no integrity. To see a father smother his love to his son who has severe cerebral palsy in public is quite a rarity. Such a simple yet powerful and wondrous sight.

There is no power greater than love.

And love is good.

And all good things indeed seem to come from our maker.

Perhaps this is what Christ taught us to do. Unfortunately, the modern Christian system seems to have forgotten this.

Hmm... liberation theology sounds a little more and more enticing, lol.

Monkey see, Monkey do.
Monkey pee all over you.
Monkey laugh, Monkey cry.
Monkey fling around tons of pie.

Blind adherents to our socialization. Oblivious followers of others. We see, we do. We pee all over you.

We laugh, we cry.
We kill and we are awarded medals.
Medals of honor?
Or medals of brutality?
Too quick are we to praise.

We imitate, which we then praise one another for doing so.
Any shred of opposition is struck down like vermin.
Realization of such is seen as flippant and deviant.
And deviancy supposedly only goes upstream.
And deviancy is only and always harmful.

Are we social creatures? Yes... but too much.
We're monkeys.
Monkey see, monkey do.
Monkey pee all over you.

So I'm lying on my bed, reading John Eldredge's book "Wild at Heart".  I've always been meaning to read the book but I never got around doing so.  At the same time I'm not sure if I really believe everything the man says (especially when it comes to design and sex roles), but I'm not entirely discounting him either.  If anything, he's probably right.  I just tend to question almost everything.  Either way, it's a really really great book.  I'm not going to lie, it's changing the way I think about myself.

I read a segment on it about how so many boys are diagnoses (i.e. improperly diagnosed) with ADHD and are put on some sort of psychoactive drug (i.e. Ritalin, Adderall, etc).  And then I imagined myself in a random scenario:

So I'm sitting next to my spouse at a parent-teacher conference, and my son's teacher is telling me she thinks that my son (let's call him Joey) is very hyperactive and shows little attention in class.

Then I'd be all: "Excuse me.  Sorry, but no.  My son doesn't have ADHD and no he doesn't need to be on psychoactive drugs".

She then may go on some tangent about how she's been an elementary school teacher for many years and knows what ADHD-kids act like and all that stuff, and then she would question why I can be so sure of my assessment.

"Because I'm a Doctor in Psychology and my work involves an understanding of psychopathology.  He's just being a boy in an environment that doesn't allow him to act like one."

The conference would end, and my spouse and I would be walking down the hallway past all the lockers.  I'd then turn to her and go:

"I so owned her."

Oh I relish for this day. lol

I feel like I just got hit by a train now...

*sigh*

So I was at my pastor's house yesterday, when I realized that he played WoW (in moderation, of course)...

Realizing that a a few students also played WoW (like four others), he got really excited and they eventually decided to transfer characters over to a single server for them to all play.

This did not help my cause.  The idea of being able to play with all of them (and being a much higher level than them, I could run them through instances and whatnot) sounded too good to pass up.

We decided to use scroll of Resurrection, which gave me 10 days free and if I paid for a month, then the person who convinced me to go back would get a free month.  The idea was that someone would pay for my month and they would also get a free month.

So I log in and see my character for the first time in almost a year.  A level 62 Human Mage.  Spent a lot of time on her.

Well I log out, tell everybody "you are all my witnesses on this".

I go to my character select screen...

And do a mass deletion of every single character that I had.

Goodbye, WoW. It's been fun, but I can't afford you any longer.  Not my money nor my time will be invested in you anymore.

I AM DONE!  I hope I managed to get all A's this semester.

I go home tomorrow. =(

I'm going to miss Joy.  Five weeks away from her.

Sadface. D: But hey... I guess some distance is good, right?  Enables growth and stuff and all that important jazz. =)

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Next semester is going to be brutal...

MWF:
8:00 AM - Professional/Ethical/Legal Issues (In the field of counseling psychology, that is)
10:00 AM (Friday only) - Interpersonal Relationship Group (Lame one-credit class that has the workload of a full one)
11:00 AM - Teacher's Assistant for Intro to Psychology (Money!)
1:00 PM - Life of Christ and Acts
2:00 PM - Diagnosis, Assessment, and Case Management

TTH
10:35 AM - Abnormal Psychology
12:00 PM - Essentials of Human Anatomy
1:25 (Tuesday only) - Essentials of Human Anatomy Lab

I really want to replace Ess. of Human Anatomy with Psychology of Religion instead, but than I won't meet the prerequisites for Physiological Psychology in the Fall. Blah. I don't think I can do Ess. over the summer either, but it won't hurt for me to plead with the schools. 

As for the rest of my Psych classes, they're all Junior and Senior level.  Oh what fun! =) Although I'm a little nervous about Abnormal Psychology.  Dr. Slaughter teaches it. =(  Actually I hear she's a phenomenal professor... but still.  Her name makes her sound scary. =(

I was reading some of my old LJ entries from a year or two ago...

Holy crap.  Man, have I changed.

I may not make an A in developmental psychology...

Ffffrrrrrrrrriiiick.

=(

I fractured a bone or two in my foot from sparring yesterday for a Tae Kwon Do tournament.

=( =( =(

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_MED_AIDS_TREATMENT?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-11-13-07-45-34

I want to know what you all think of it, especially Bradley.

Speaking as a political moderate, I think there will be much good that comes out of this.  There will also be much bad.

Regardless, it is our obligation to pray for our leader, as that is what he is: Our leader.  Whatever social repercussions may follow suit, we are to pray that God works his mighty hand through every American.

We should NOT be booing or yelling hateful remarks about Obama.  That is out of hate and blatant ignorance, and I think Christ himself would rebuke us for our hateful actions.  I heard this happen a few minutes ago on campus, and I expect there to be many upset in the next few days.  They have every right to be disappointed, but they do not have the right to speak words of hate about the man.

SO HERE'S THE RUNDOWN OF POLITICS.

MCCAIN IS A MAVERICK THAT'S GOING TO KICK THE BUCKET, PALIN IS A WOMAN AND IS GOING ROGUE, OBAMA IS BLACK AND HATES CHRISTIANS AND HAS A NASTY MOLE, AND BIDEN IS A HORSE.

Good lord, everyone is making such a big deal over tomorrow's election.  What happens, happens.  And frankly, this whole "end times" business with Obama is something I can't so easily accept. I've been told that Obama is like Hitler, that Hitler is like Obama, and that McCain is going to die of old age or whatever.

Right, like Obama is suddenly something that nobody was in the past... I'm pretty sure that there were a lot of moments in the world's history that made people go "OMG THE END TIME IS COMING".

Whoever is elected in office, I know that it's still God that is directly in control of everything.  That being said, I fear nothing.

I wrote in for Colbert by the way. =)

Edit: First post here by John.  I approve of what he says.

-Taken by Joy. XD  Yes, those are jumper cables attached to me.  There's also a small frog plushie on my shoulder!


Edit: And here is my Developmental Psych professor (No it's not a sex-ed class like Corrie thought XD).  My friend Danielle was wearing Fairy wings and coaxed our professor to try them on at the end of class...

I managed to snap a photo of it.  It's absolutely golden. XD

So I was doing my laundry a few hours ago when the cleaning lady stepped in to do some of her cleaning duties.  As I was putting my dirty laundry in the washer, she commented on how I was like the second boy she's seen take the time to correctly to his laundry.

I guess a lot of guys just throw their clothes in the washer or something.

Half a semester is over, and I'm basically on the brink of "Make it or Break it".  My aim is for all As this semester, and if I don't put everything in, then I may come up with having some Bs in my courses.

I CANNOT ACCEPT THIS!  I need to maintain a good GPA so I can be prepped for whatever Graduate school I decide to apply to.  And by good, I mean like over 3.5.  Granted I'm taking some psych classes with a relatively easy professor, but next semester is going to be sooo much harder.  I'm planning on taking Abnormal Psychology with Dr. Slaughter.  Her classes are like... haaaaaaaard.  Just the way college should be, I guess.

Besides that, life's alright, I suppose.  I'll be staying here for Thanksgiving break, so it'll be pretty empty here. XD  Goodness, I miss the cold weather back at home. =(

First ATB played at a club in DC when I was away in Florida for school... NOW PENDULUM IS PLAYING IN BALTIMORE THIS OCTOBER!



This is SO not fair! D: D: D: