kevin and sunni, I am praying for you on your trip

Oh my gosh!

MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass lightbulb in his anus.




Wednesday night, doctors brought Mohammad's misery to an end after a one-and-a-half hour operation to remove the object.



"Thanks Allah, now I feel comfort. Today, I had my breakfast. I was just drinking water, nothing else," Mohammad, a grey-beared man in his mid-40s, told Reuters from a hospital bed in the southern central city of Multan.



"We had to take it out intact," said Dr. Farrukh Aftab at Nishtar Hospital. "Had it been broken inside, it would be a very very complicated situation."



Mohammad, who is serving a four-year sentence for making liquor, prohibited for Muslims, said he was shocked when he was first told the cause of his discomfort. He swears he didn't know the bulb was there.



"When I woke up I felt a pain in my lower abdomen, but later in hospital, they told me this," Mohammad said.



"I don't know who did this to me. Police or other prisoners."



The doctor treating Mohammad said he'd never encountered anything like it before, and doubted the felon's story that someone had drugged him and inserted the bulb while he was comatose.

Today I talked with this woman who had just moved up from the Rio Grande River Valley. She came in with the confidence and the demeanor to actually make a change in her life, as well as the life of her family. I helped her get some clothes for her and her family, and it wasn't until half way through talking with her, I noticed that she only had half a hand. This hand was not naturally in half. From the quick look at it, I could tell it was severed off. Images ran through my head of what hardships this sweet lady had endured. Driving desperately into Oklahoma that their might be hopes of a better life for her and her little daughter, and her mother who couldn't even speak a word of english.




Poverty can end, I truly believe that it can. We make the difference, through supporting those who cannot support themselves to begin with. Greater pride has no one than the one who can do something finally on their own, except maybe that of the one making sure that they can. Our parents had done that for us. God does that for us. Why can't we give people the same diginity?



Support is not necessarily money, although it can be. It is a ride, it is giving someone food. It is donating your old clothing. It is taking the time to give someone the dignity that has been given unto you.




So I think about this desperate but confident half handed mother, with her little daughter coming from the depths of nothing, trying to make it, just needing that push of diginity, that assurance that Love will overcome all things, and I think about my own mother and if she was in that situation, or if it was my sister. This has gotten me pretty emotional and I have probably lost you all on my point. But please look into helping the less fortunate. Everyone knows someone who could use a little help.

ducks be messin' up my drive!

lazy sunday (being tired doesn't mean I smoke crack)

You know how much isn't happening for me when I am typing about food.



Last night, I stayed in to get some much needed rest, and so besides some talking on the phone, I decided to make a nice sandwich. The idea comes from a sandwich I got a quiznos', the tomato cheddar melt.



Here's how you make it:



Turn the broiler on high


Grill up some red bell peppers (very little)OR have very little tomato sauce
Chop up some onions


Slice some tomatoesget your spices and olive oil (or vinegrette)



and preferably get out some cracker barrel cheddar (red pack)


Lay out the bread of choice on the cookie sheet (no rye, that stuff is gross)


lay down the peppers or sauce


then the tomatoes
then the oinions

some cracked black pepper


put the cheddar slices on topbasil


oregano


drizzle or the olive oil (or vinegrette) lightly over the top


and place in the ovenin about 4 minutes, you will have an awesome sandwich!!!




I dunno why I tried it, but the ideas lingered in my mind, and man it was good.I can't complain about my day when my biggest thing of the day was a sandwich.

I just got finished with a vacation that I had been on since Friday and even though not much has happened, I was pretty much too busy to do anything except that few hours where I watched TV a few days ago (see the blog about trl).



The Best way to describe all of this was that it was a series of naps.



Friday was rooted in Thursday in which I stayed up too late and then woke up too early to drive down to Dallas and pick up Ellis, and then come right back, where Emergency saw me back at work for that afternoon, and then I stayed out too late, went out into the middle of Oklahoma on Saturday, and stayed out way too late that night. Wake up Sunday morning for Church, and then go back to sleep, and then hang out way too late, then to work on Monday (yes, my vacation day) to help out with the aforementioned emergency, and then up too late once again.
guh! So then Tuesday I actually slept like more than four hours, and I was happy to do it, and then stay out awfully late with great friends. Yesterday was a long day as well, but I got to hold Amanda's baby, and just looking at a baby who is looking at you, I dunno how to explain it, it just sets you at ease.



I am just on a weird schedule lately. This was a schedule I had at one time kept on a regular basis, but I dunno, I just can't do it as easily anymore. I can however, wake up with a quicker snap now. More than anything, I want to sleep.

Today I learned that I am, infact, old. I am off today, and not only is the itching desire to work something I feel, but to compensate this time, I actually turned the tv away from something other than PBS or the simpsons and actually turned it to mtv, trl to be exact. These girls were hosting and they couldn't have been a day over 12. I can see them right now talking about their new single "my b/f's got a new permit" or their classics like "text message my heart" and the ever popular "hehe, I'll act older than I am" or whatever crap their peddling these days. I knew this was a mistake but I found out that apparently people still listen to the red hot chili peppers. How many songs can they write about california? really? I knew that vh1 basically became the channel about how rich people live, and mtv always had crap, but wow, so much worse.

I know I am dating myself here, but does anyone remember when they had 120 minutes or the Jon Stewart show?

JP ideas

julia wanted to be a record, I had two ideas...

medication

It just so happens I have many conerns
My brother's down the road and my lover in town
They both need affection
And some kind of love

Well I'm the one who gives it at any given time
From two in the morning to six
Call me up and cry

My lover keeps it secret that we meet under covers
When asked by her man if we two are lovers
She says, "I hardly know him.
Besides, he's not my type."

Her man's a policeman with a keen sense of trouble
He's known just by danger
And all kinds of liars

Brother called this morning in a terrible panic
Spies in the closet, bugs in the attic
He screams bloody murder saying,
"We're all gonna die.

Death is upon me, I know 'cause he showed me
Pictures of graveyards and us underneath."

I'm losing my hearing from my brother screaming,
"They're coming to get me and
Someone call the police."

Two in the morning, the phone disconnected
Her man knows I'm calling, it's what I expected
A note on my backdoor saying, "Baby not tonight."

So I sit with my brother who is nursing a cut wrist
He's mumbling "Forgive me."
And "Don't let them take me away."

I can be a good boy and stay out of trouble
Jackie I love you and
Don't let them take your brother

Strapped to a table, go in electrodes
"Jackie come save me the doctors will kill me."
"No, they're here to help you
Straighten out your mind."

The TV is blaring with some preacher saying that
God is among us and he hears our cries

Lord, do me a favor
It's wrong but I ask you
Take my brother's life

'Cause he's sick of the suffering
The pills he's inhaling
The cross he is bearing
That is his trouble mind

up & comers you might not have heard yet.

ann coulter is a frickin' idiot.

Constituting everyone into labels is ignorant assumption. Ann Coulter gives her cause a real bad name by attacking people who never had attacked her. Labeling people who care about the environment as "liberals" who are "godless" is more judgemental than anything else. If she did have any good points, she has lost them in the midst of all her statements of ignorance. How can you call someone godless and then say that they don't mind being called godless? I really find this insulting as a Christian who tends to lean towards the left. My views on how energy should be spent, and how my morality blends into a political landscape might differ drastically from that of my conservative friends, but I don't go out calling them ignorant cookie cutter judgementalists who loves fox news. The character of those with faith should be not that of judgementalism, and if you want to go that route, you should look more into tactful accountability. I have this friend Al who further negates his cause by attacking with malice instead of approaching with tact. Al pretty much told me that all democrats are cooks and that Ted Kennedy is a nutjob. Now, Senator Kennedy certainly has some downfalls, he has had a dui, not unlike the President. But to dismiss the good that both men do and label them as nutjobs certainly does no good. As a person who leans toward the left, I don't go badmouthing the president. It does not good. Anyone can try to prove a point by interrupting someone with randomn half truths, and it seriously is a tactic used to support mute points. Calling someone a nutjob to try to have someone else see your point of view is totally ignorant. This is like calling out a homosexual in a Church service and calling them by derogatory names. Why wouldn't we do this? Hmmmm. Cause that makes Christians look bad and is not of the Character of Christ. I have quite of bit of friends who are gay, and most of them have told me that being a real, respectful person who sees them as a true friend has shown them more about Christianity than anything else. So touch base with my main sentiment to Ann Coulter is that she is for conservatives what Howard Dean is for liberals, bad. I have no major issues with them because I do know there are some great conservatives too, and in that same sense, please know that there are some awesome leftists out there too. Just because we take things from a different approach does not mean we are "godless", only God can judge that. Ann Coulter, have fun selling to people who are already in the same mindset as you. Thanks for passing your judgement on me and saying that I don't mind being called "godless".

al-core

Even though I am scared of Stipey...

I have owned this album over 6 times. And by that, I mean, I have bought it as many times. The first time was in the early 90's when I owned it on cassette until it broke. Then I think my brother took one of the cds, an ex stold a copy, I bought another copy in a used rack that skipped, and then another one that skipped on a different track, and then another I gave away as a gift, and then I own this again.



Some people say that REM's "document" is probably their best. I love "UP" and "Document", but "Green" is the one that reaches deep into me and still captivates me as if it was new. Having driven around most of the country, this album always holds up, although I could do without PopSong89. I am sure I have listened to this album at least 300 times all the way through.


Still to this day, listening to this envokes certain smells, memories, and just puts me in a certain place that is somewhat magical in a way that not many albums can do.

Most people dismiss REM, but they are of equal importance to a band like U2, except with REM you get a band that doesn't need to sound big, doesn't need to be epic, they are great big or soft. Fragile, warm, and personal, I love this album with a passion.

I get bored at work, I just get stupid.

This is my favorite radio station in the world. Please listen, please support.

When I was about 5 or 6, I was sitting on a small boat and fell off. Ever since then, I have had this fascination and fear of the water. It is so beautiful, but in the same sense so restricting. It made Hawaii feel like a prison to me because I couldn't just drive away.


I think about the prison that water is, and it how is necessary for life, but can also end life too.
The great tidal waves in the tsunami of 2004 is still fresh in my memory. I remember how it was only newsticker news at first with sports scores on the actual screen.


I don't think I will ever know the full gravity of this tragic event because it didn't happen in a country that sparks interest to the American Eye. Of course we care, but it wasn't our families who perished and were swallowed into the sea, it was some poor family on the other side of the world. It doesn't effect me as much as it does those there, and "why should it?" seems to be the consensus of how we handle things like that.


How do you rebuild when tragedy is so massive? Geography physically changed from the force of this wave, making one island two islands. Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people are missing off the face of the earth, and those who survived are left with rubbish and peril in thier midst.


Never Forget.

Damien Jurado- What Were the Chances

Why are we so focused on these things. I was actually watching some TV and vh1 (once a music channel known for behind the music and the phil collins weekend) is obsessed with how the rich and vain live. Is it because we are obsessed? Why are we so fascinated with others who we put on the soapboxes that we create for them? This goes beyond the mainstream culture. We wait for one person deemed "worthy" to latch on to one idea, and we all clamor for it. What then, is all this for, if not basically for the need of acceptance? Should we not like people for who they are? The appeal of the eye unfortunately is stronger the the appeal of the mind and the heart. And if the heart wants what the eyes see, we are certainly doomed.


I truly do believe what has happened is that somewhere in the line, is that nobody has stood and said "No, we will not be cast into these categories of anything other than human beings!" What is the true appeal of being known? So you can do what you want, or the idea of doing what others assume you should be doing?


My heart is heavy in thinking that we have to dress and look a certain way. It seems as though we are becoming (or always have been) the collective of the content, wanting the mass appeal over the true sastisfaction that comes from being ourselves, good or bad.

One night I was coming I was coming home late and I was driving past local United and I saw one of the scariest things in my perception. There was this dog running in the dark. Alone, afraid, and running in the dark;scared and looking for home. I dunno about you, but I love my pets. To know that this beautiful creature who by the looks of it, obviously had an owner who loved it, just running confused and looking for the ones who love it. I dunno why, but it breaks my heart every time I think about it.

I am extremely tired.

Filesharers, PLEASE send me this!

the painfully uncool.

I have decided, and many of you have already surmised this:

I am in no way cool.


Think about it, for those of you who know me. I start like I know what I am talking about with one thing, and then I chase another thing. It's like I am two different battling people at times. Both want the same things but in totally different ways.

All vision and no direction, how lame is that?

I have found myself doing something lately that I thought I wouldn't do. Changing my viewpoints on things to accomodate my opinion rather than the actual standings. Defenses can always be drawn to do this but really, shouldn't something be true regardless of one's own opinion on things?

See, it's things like that are uncool. I know I have friends and people that love me. That doesn't mean I am cool. I can remain calm and seem strong, but I assure you that I am in no way cool. It's like people reserve what they are wanting to say to or around me because they feel like I would have reservations when infact, I see myself as a person who is willing to hear people out, even if I don't personally agree on their perspectives. I am a very passive person and I like to hear out everyone's opinions.

Has anyone brought this up to me? No, but the feeling is in the air.

Romans 6

1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7for he who has died is freed from sin.
8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
13and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
17But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
18and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
22But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.