Burroughs..

Started reading the Martian Adventures by E.R. Burroughs..  Gotta say the movie (John Carter) was kinda stupid... ...But the books read fast, and the story is very detailed, and well written.


 http://www.tarzan.org/barsoom.html


Ok.. April 1st, and I'm done with the first book. lol Not a very long book, so don't be too impressed. Starting the second one. I got spoiled reading Anne Rice, and Terry Goodkind.  They paint such a wonderful picture of the locations in the stories they write. To anyone interested..  I recommend the. "The Sword of Truth" series to anyone who likes a good love story and brutal fantasy. 

Most accurate version of the truth

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_most_accurate_Bible_translation

I read this whole explanation, and think the author knows what he's talking about. I would like to get some feed back about this, so if you read this and have an opinion..  ..Please leave a comment and let me know which version you thin is the most accurate. Thanks

Grandiose delusions and Healing

This guy and his claims are unbelievable..  I would not want to be him, when he dies and goes to see God in person.

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/691-todd-bentley-angels

http://defendingcontending.com/2009/05/10/todd-bentley-exposed-as-fraud/

Colossians 2:18-19

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹ They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

Instead of seeking someone who has wild claims of the proof of God, why not seek someone that wants you to help yourself...  someone that honestly wants to help guide you on the right path. 

http://www.joycemeyer.org/

R.I.P.

Green juice and Sour notes

Sitting here drinking my fruit/ veg smoothie...

....and thought I'd share a couple things.

A favorite new band I found thanks to exploring on YouTube...

And the other on more of a sour note, is about L.J. Smith getting fired from writing her own books. This made me soo mad..

L.J. Smith Got Fired from writing her own novels. Opinion by  Thedarkeststar posted 1 year ago

12 fans

Here’s an email my friend received from L.J. Smith. “Hi Emily— Thank you for your beautiful email. I completely understand why some fans get overeager—and especially if they think there is bad news for them. I hope that you will enjoy Midnight, as it is truly the story of Damon finding his deepest feelings for both Elena and Bonnie—and his feelings are definitely not platonic. In fact, to be blunt, without Bonnie and something that Bonnie does at the end, Damon would be permanently dead. But right now I have to tell you something that makes me so sad and devastated—as bad, in fact, as I have ever felt except for when my mother died. It’s confidential, but it’s been so long now that I just can’t keep up a charade with good-hearted readers like you. To put it briefly, I’ve been fired from writing the Vampire Diaries. And I’ve been fighting and fighting this since last fall, but there is absolutely no recourse. Midnight is the last L. J. Smith book in the Vampire Diaries series. It probably sounds completely impossible to say that I am fired from writing my own books. But the truth is that they’re not mine, even though I write every word. When I was called by an agent and asked to write the vampire trilogy, that agent wasn’t from a publisher, but from what is now Alloy Entertainment, Ltd. And they are a book packager. A book packager sells books, already made with covers and all, to publishers, like HarperCollins—my publisher for The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle. And both these series were written “for hire” which means that the book packager owns the books the author produces. Although I didn’t even understand what “for hire” meant back in 1990, when I agreed to write books for them, I found out eventually, to my horror and dismay. It means that even though I have written the entire series, I don’t own anything about The Vampire Diaries. And from now on, the books will be written by an anonymous ghostwriter, just as Stefan’s Diaries are. It will say “Created by L. J. Smith” on the cover, but I am not allowed even to change a word in the ghostwriter’s book. You might wonder why the book packager and Harper would do this to me. I am not sure either, but usually a book packager gets very submissive, non-assertive writers to write for them—not to mention that most of them, writers or ghostwriters, have had a lot of publishers turn their books down. Book packagers are used to do a lot of editing on their author’s books—because the books need intense editing. But I’m not submissive, and I always fight editing. In Midnight, I had to fight to keep many Bonnie scenes in the book. I’m not at all sure they liked the things I was doing with Bonnie and Damon—they kept trying to cut such scenes. And of course they didn’t like Elena’s behavior at all. They want strictly Stelena books. So last fall when I gave them the book Phantom, they didn’t bother to give me edits. Instead, I was given a letter addressed to the ghostwriter by name, telling her to completely rewrite my book. They wouldn’t even listen when I pleaded and promised to do Phantom as they required. The simply took the series and gave it to the ghostwriter . . . to write not only The Hunters trilogy, but whatever comes after that. They have always tried to minimize my participation in The Vampire Diaries. On the very first original books in 1990 my name was almost invisible on the cover. And now they have my manuscript of Phantom, and the book the ghostwriter writes from it may even sound like I wrote it in places, because they have the right to use my work as they see fit. But the book after that … that will be pure ghostwriter. I would guess that they think you readers won’t see or care about the difference in writing styles and skills. I have said this to another Bamon fan, and I’ll say it now. I had so many plans for Bonnie in The Hunters trilogy. First of all, in Phantom, I had her showing a lot more emotion, grieving right along side Elena because—well, because Damon does something almost unbelievable for Bonnie in Midnight and he doesn’t get out unscathed. I won’t spoil it if you don’t know. But they wanted Bonnie to have just put it all behind her—and with Bonnie’s character, I don’t think so! She is always completely openhearted with her emotions; even though she has matured so much in Midnight, she’s still Bonnie, who says exactly what she thinks, even if she hasn’t had a dose of Black Magic wine. I wanted to write Moonsong, and give Bonnie an admirer who is just as sweet and even more naïve than she is—a pure white wolf with radiant blue eyes, who happens to be a werewolf with moonlight colored hair and the same blue eyes when he’s human. I wanted to show Damon’s surprising reaction to Xander the good werewolf (not at all happy about it—so much that he “accidentally” almost kills the poor innocent wolf) . I also wanted to show how Damon rescues Bonnie from a vicious wolf-pack attack, and then let her fly away with him. And I wanted to show how Bonnie, who knows a little medicine from her sister Mary, helps Damon deliver Caroline’s twin babies when she goes into labor deep in the woods. But that’s one scene that I would have had to fight tooth and nail for, because even the glow that Damon and Bonnie share at seeing new life come into the world wouldn’t be enough for them to call it decent. They would undoubtedly have tried to make me cut it. But I still want to write it, so badly. I even had the last book in that trilogy plotted out, where Stefan’s worst nightmare comes true and he takes so much blood from Elena that has to be taken to the hospital for a massive transfusion. He then decides to Influence Elena so hat she will forget his existence, and he does so, to Damon and Bonnie and Meredith’s consternation. I wanted to show how this affected each one of the characters, and how Bonnie once again begins to write in her diary, since Elena’s diary is also forgotten, along with Stefan. I like to write things from Bonnie’s point of view, as I did in Dark Reunion. But none of these things will happen, beause I won’t be around to write it. And I just can’t keep up the pretense any long with wonderful fans like you. I can’t pretend that Bonnie and Damon’s relationship will continue to grow as Damon learns to respect her as well as to love her. She has become “his girl” but I can’t follow up on that. I had to tell the ghostwriter that he would address Bonnie as “little redbird” when he speaks to her. Sorry for the long rant, but the charade is over for me. I don’t know how Phantom will turn out, with a blend of my manuscript and the complete rewriting of it by the ghostwriter. But I dread it, and even more do I dread what the next books will be like. I’ve worked so hard to make Vampire Diaries a good series, only to have the unthinkable happen to me. And I have no one but myself to blame for not being submissive enough. Lisa L. J. Smith” source:  http://www.fanpop.com/spots/damon-and-bonnie/articles/94251/title/lj-smith-fired#comments Article from Fanpop.com

Morning.. nothing to say.

Good morning..  Why am I up this early do you ask?? Monastic life starts early...  Starbucks is open (I don't get the one with bugs either)..

Stupid rooster just doesn't understand what time it really is..  

Actually I listen to a radio program. I'd say listening to others talk about God and their relationship makes me understand mine better. Something happened to me which cemented my beliefs. Not a moment of clarity, or realization.... More like physical readjustment. Hands came out of the empty air, and grabbed me by the shoulders..  GO THAT WAY! It said. After that I was too scared and too humbled to do anything but pray. 

Perhaps I should clarify what happened, and paint you the whole picture. But I won't..  :) 

    

The quietest time of the day. Before the city wakes, and the clouds disappear. The sky turns orange, and my memories fade into the background. 

http://stjohnscch.com/history.html

Macro Insects

Another amazing photography link. 

http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/amazing_macro_photography_of_insects_in_the_drops_of_dew

Nag Hammadi Lost Texts

Interesting site about the lost texts of Jesus..

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html

The Fishermans SorrowThe Battle Cry of Killecrankie (Jeff Victor)

Healthy Sacrifice.. :)

In an attempt to make myself more healthy, I'm drinking fruit/ veg smoothies. Spinach, banana, orange juice, and kale to start.   


Heaven forbid we eat something that's not processed. I think we can trust our ancestors and live of the land. I mean eat raw everything.  Here's a couple recipes..  Thanks Mom for the advice.


http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/recipes/big-blend-fruit-vegetable-smoothie-recipe/ 


http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/recipes/watermelon-kale-detox-green-smoothie-recipe/

A Dangerous Method

Just wanted to post this link to a movie I wanted to see..  Had me laughing pretty hard.


http://articles.boston.com/2011-12-23/ae/30551684_1_sabina-spielrein-michael-fassbender-jung-and-freud 

Lost Letters..

Wrote 4 parts to this ten years ago..  Seems I can't find the first two parts but here's the last two. 






“Lost Letter to a Loved One” Part 3 "transitional state of being"



I crawl from the stern, broken and heavy from the water. I lay on the ground and drift in and out of consciousness, as you comb your fingers through my hair. In the distance a black and angry cloud moves closer drenching everything underneath. At first the pain came slowly..  ..until I felt what happened. Warm liquid seeped out of my skull as all the light began to fade. Like a thick mist it engulfed me whole. My last thoughts were of you.. such little time together.
It starts as a chill... then turns to a numbing cold. You fall down.. or so it seems, but remain stationary. As if your celestial body was being sucked toward the center of the earth. All thought stops, and suddenly a light issues from within you. Like a lamp it makes an eerie glow, giving you form. I feel lost and scared without you. I search for you but I can not see. My fingers crack and bleed, my body glows red, and just as suddenly as I arrived here, I shatter into a thousand screaming pieces.. I am liquid, thick and black infecting all things. I breath in life and exhale death. Sorrow filled pain, existing to fuel hells furnace...
... shall I ever wake from this dream?  





 
"Lost Letter to a Loved One" Part 4 The Ruins of Rome


I feel the rain hitting my face as I lay on the open ground. My consciousness seems to materialize out of the earth like my body. I sit up and look around at the ruins of some old civilization. Shields and swords lay strewn about the charred remains of a council building. On the front steps the senators of the late unstoppable society lay dead. Faces of agony and pain, paused in time. The bodies had the look of someone asleep rather than dead for centuries. As if they were perfectly preserved after they died, they lay in a speechless un-waking sleep.   I recognize the uniforms of the soldiers eternally guarding their posts. something so familiar.. The scene of war, and some great plot of assassination. In the distance I see a small boy. Although such an event would scare most people, it seemed as if I was looking at myself in some form. he walked as if in a dream. lightly patrolling the grim scene, not really seeing anything or looking at anything. More like through them. As if we were the ghosts. I start to walk towards him and as I do, I look at his eyes for the first time. Empty, and dark... he put his hand out and appears in front of me. I fall backwards as he touches my hand... My body seems to be sucked through a hole in time. The light fades and I feel myself go limp.
I jump awake still laying in the boat that I started in. Maybe even in the same spot. The water splashes violently against the sides of the boat before it went under.  I will never give up.. I will find you.

Destroying Paradise

“Preserving Destruction”

I lived and worked at Yosemite National Park four years ago.  Set on top of a mountain in the Sierra’s, it’s away from the busy life of the city.  One of the most appealing things about living and working there is the unbelievable pristine beauty and the chance to get to get to know yourself in that mostly untouched preserve. At least before I started living there I thought of it as untouched. We have a way of infecting our environment with our trash and bad habits.    
I think spending time in a more natural setting has a great impact on your state of mind.  Your state of mind influences everything that defines us as people.  It shapes the way you perceive things; it affects the way you treat other people, and affects the decisions we make.
Unfortunately, my first impression of Yosemite was shaped by the company that runs the food services inside the park.  This company, I think, is one of the worst companies to work for in the United States.  Known for their bad treatment of employees, they managed to make my visit to Yosemite into a living nightmare of being trapped on a mountain with no car and with little to eat and working for less than minimum wage.  I myself worked in the village store stocking the shelves and filling the shelves with nick-knacks that tourists buy to give to their friends to collect dust.  The store carried refrigerator magnets, clothing and super expensive health food and catered to tourists from around the world..  Although Yosemite manages to have the regular tourist’s trappings, even with the high prices and lame management, it’s still a paradise of overwhelming beauty for those who can pay the price.  Yet who’s really paying the price?  The park?  The employees?  Or maybe a little of both.
Early morning mist drifts around the mountain, concealing it from view , as if to hide itself from the on coming rush of SUV’s and tour buses.  Deer walk freely among the population without even a sign of noticing us.  Birds hop around and eat scraps from the ground.  The bus comes to every building and drops people off and picks them up.  Emitting think clouds of toxic fumes to the surrounding fragile ecosystem, the buses drive around the park almost all day. Seven am till seven pm they circle the park like vultures waiting for prey.  The birds and the other animals being the prey.  They come dependant on us for food and then starve during the winter.  The bees and the flies patrol the overflowing trash cans and bother the people trying to eat.  We swat at them as if they’re in our way.  But who’s bugging whom? Which one of us is a trespasser invading the other’s space?  Are they not here because of us?
We will build on every inch of soil until there is nothing left.  We are stuck in a way of living that hurts the things around us, and things don’t change because our society doesn’t let it change.  We get used to a way of living. Usually it’s more and more reliant on machines, other than ourselves.  It would take a lot to sway us from our pampered lazy existence.  We pollute everything around us, and do nothing to change it.  Why should it take such drastic changes in the environment for us to be more aware of what‘s going on?
I related this question to the concept in the movie, “Planet of the Apes.”  In this movie nature and the planet had a way of fixing itself.  In the beginning people captured and tested monkeys and apes for research and scientific reasons and changed the apes role in the planet in the process which affected their intelligence and evolution.  Although the humans were able to make the apes more intelligent, they did not give them respect as fellow living entities on earth but made them servants and slaves for the humans.  The end result had the monkeys becoming the dominant species and turning on their human hosts.  The movie depicts an example of manipulating nature and the resulting effects.
An astronaut goes on a reconnaissance mission to recover a lost monkey operated pod and in turn ends up going into a wormhole that take him to the future. There he finds that the monkeys have evolved, rebelled and took over as the dominant species.
The contrast in this movie might be drastic but the message of it can relate to us. As we continue to pollute and effect the ecosystem of the world and even at the National Park, we may be insuring that the future of the park will be directly effected. When these changes become too much, the planet may rebel and change with possible changes that eventually won’t support life for us, solving the problem for the earth. If we are not here to pollute the earth then the earths precious system of life goes on as it always has.
In the middle of Yosemite is the pioneer cemetery.  Now home to some of the old occupants, and some of the original Indians that the park was named after.  When they set up camp there, I don’t think their intentions were to make it into some sort of a small city.  I think we have run out of untouched places and now have a need to preserve the few places we have left.  I don’t think we preserve it in it’s entirety, but that’s the cost nature has no choice but to take.
As we progress in science and technology, the higher our demand for natural resources of fuel and energy.  Whether we want it or not the time for change is upon us.  There are so many signs that we are having negative effects on our planet that it will be hard to ignore it much longer.  It’s not that there is know one doing anything either, because there are many environmental groups and companies that sole purpose is to find alternative energy.  They are not about to start funding research to help produce any alternative energy vehicles completely non-reliant on gasoline and oil, unless they can make money from it.  There will always be a lack of funding for these programs, unless we get everyone involved globally.   Although I believe that the National Park system is a very good system and they do try a lot to make our presence go unnoticed.  The bears still eat out of the trash cans at night and the little cabins that we stayed in won’t keep them out.  The animals will still notice that we are there but hopefully the environment wont be drastically changed by it.  In the end of the movie the character realizes that the foreign planet he is on is earth.  That, just like the chaos theory, the most insignificant of changes can bring about the most cataclysmic events.  Everything we do affects us and everything around us. The character realizes the profound impact they have caused by their actions. But at the same time all the humans that are left unite together to overcome the apes and gain their freedom.  What i learned was that we are divided on these issues.  That we might not be doing a lot about this situation, but other countries produce 10 times the amount of pollution and have a way more dramatic effect on things than us.  Most of these countries do nothing to change things, and will be a lot harder to persuade to take action.
It’s not until the planets bare and changed permanently  that we and the characters in this movie actually realize the profound effect we have had.  It’s not completely acknowledged that we are at fault until there is concrete evidence right in front of us.

OK..  I wrote this a long time ago for my English class as an example, so don't judge too harshly. Thanks 

Electroconvulsive Therapy and God

Getting to know your brain is essential in order to get to know yourself.  It helps us understand our emotions and how they work.  It helps us to learn where our emotions originate and how to control them.  
The brain is amazingly complex and we don’t understand everything there is to learn about it.  We may never know every detail about the brain, but knowing the essentials will help our knowledge of how it works.  I don’t think that there are any negative things I can say about the brain other than I regret sometimes the multitude of pointless emotions I have.  I admit that some emotions are required for me to exist and not be a mindless robot,  but I think the brain gets addicted to emotions and pops them on you when it feels like it.
 Your unconscious part of your mind is cut off from our reasoning and control.  It influences you in making decisions, but aren't your decisions based on your life experiences?  With those being based on what you were taught by your parents?  I can picture my mom yelling at me, and asking what makes me act a certain way or why I make bad decisions?  I admit it’s not all your parents’ fault, but you do base everything on what you were taught.  So in the end I guess without my brain I wouldn’t be able to exist, but at the same time I kind of wish we were separate entities.
I found an article about the mystery of consciousness.  In this article the author is trying to explain the true meaning consciousness.  Consciousness is the activity of the brain.  With most of us we are taught that we have souls and that the soul lives beyond death, to travel to paradise or heaven.  After reading this article I don’t necessarily denounce my faith but have a different point of view on it.  The research done by neuroscientists is very extensive and would sway the most concrete of believers.
One of the tests they did involved how electricity can alter the state of mind.  It can make us see things that are not there.  So in turn our brain tells us what is real and what isn’t.  But doesn't it also enable us to see?  So it could make things seem to disappear from our sight when there really there.  Back when Columbus discovered America, the first boats that arrived on the beach could not be seen by the natives.  They have never seen anything like that before and thus could not see something they didn’t know existed.  It wasn’t until they came ashore that they acknowledged that the ships were there.  So everything we see isn’t necessarily real, or a definite reality.  At the end of this article it says, “...imagining faces or places lights up the same neurons as actually seeing them.” (Steven Pinker- 2007)











References

Pinker, Steven. “The Mystery of Consciousness. (Cover Story)” Time 169.5 (2007): 58-70 Vocational and Career Collection 3 February 2007

Running Games

In reference to..  "The Hunger Games."
   I found the characters were good. It seemed like it was written for kids, and possibly by a twelve year old. I had a lot of unanswered questions at the end, and found some conflicting things. But the worse thing was the likeness to..  "The Running Man." I almost laughed out loud when I was watching it. (THE RUNNING MAN) The food shortages, to the different districts, and the one all powerful government/ district that rules. Even the games, with it's different cells and the realization at the end..  That the whole thing was a form of control. An illusion of lies and manipulation. Well, I guess if they make more of T.H.G. movies, that they might get better as they progress. (Like Twilight, Right? The first movie was painful to watch)
  I guess in the end, it depends on how much you love the characters, that determines if you'll actually like the books or not. I mean if you do, you want to see what happens to them right?

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/03/23/the-hunger-games-midnight-box-office/

Well anyway, it looks like the movies doing good...  so who cares about the books right?