RagingRev

Relatively speaking 2008 has actually been one of my better years, 2004 kicked my behind because of issues with my family..2005 was a frustrating year working for the bank and getting paid jack for it and the whole buying this wreck of a house thing, that and I was a very frustrated virgin on the verge of losing my mind to get some of that snatch (Wink at Monica) 2006-2007 just sucked because I was emotionally and spiritually inept and more confused than ever, plus my wife and I were constantly broke and one thing after a nother just kept screwing up or someone was screwing me over. Not that people haven’t been doing their fair share of screwing me over this year…but something changed this year.

2008 was the year I came out of the closet of doubt…I was not only able to admit to myself and the world that my doubts were completely justified, but that I could indeed live a life without a need for God. With that admission came alot of initial bitterness, which I have to say I am very proud of myself for dissipating most of that within about 6 months…(thanks to you folks that bore with me during this time, I’m sorry I was such an ass…seriously) After that bitterness subsided I just started feeling something very strange—completely and totally unprevoked happiness! Coming out of the darkness of confusion I was for once able to smile because there was no majickal man in the sky telling me how to live and directing my path, for once in my life it’s all up to me. 2008 is the year that I became the God of my own destiny. I think I have finally learned how to not be the victim anymore, but to be the causal property in my own equation-How powerful does that feel!

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So last night when I went to bed I felt pretty decent, I wasn’t drunk off of cough syrup anymore so that was definately a plus! When I woke up this morning though, my tonsils were swollen and on fire, I went ahead and took a shower and started getting dressed before i realized that it just wasn’t happening today. So I had to stay home sick today. Monica woke me up with her own invented recipe this morning though to help me stop coughing, it worked so well I thought I should share it.

Here’s what you need:

1 bag of tea—whatever kind you like, but you might want to go with a low caffeine type…and not sweet tea, just regular HOT tea. I used Lipton White Mango and Peach tea

1 peice of peppermint or Halls Coughdrop—menthol is best–add more for extra strength

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As I said earlier I was sick most of the weekend, I had an overall icky feeling, stomach aches, a good cough, and sore tonsils. The Stomach pains all but went away yesterday, but my throat has still been hurting, so I was taking Tylenol Cough and Sore Throat to help that, and it works wonderfully.

Here’s the problem; Tylenol Cough and Sore Throat DAYTIME  and Dollar General Generic Sore Throat NIGHT TIME come in the SAME BOTTLE, are the SAME COLOR (blue), and have almost exactly the SAME FLAVOR. So this morning before I went to work (a 45 minute drive)  I took two huge gulps (almost half the bottle) of the NIGHTTIME formula. Needless to say it was a long drive, combine NPR with sleep inducing medicine and you have a recipe for disaster. I was all over the road and I had to slap myself alot to stay awake. My boss realized how bad off I was so she took me off the phones and had me shadow over the new guy and let me leave at 2 when everyone got back from lunch. I was very intoxicated and if I would have had to do a sobriety test I would have promptly failed.  I didn’t find the NightTime portion on the label until I got to work BTW

So today’s lesson? Read the labels, no matter how similar things may seem, they can very well be different.

Just a quick note here, haven’t been dropping EC or blogging much in the last couple of days…have been sorta sick, I am feeling a lot better now though and will be getting back into the swing of things tomorrow.

Romance of the Southern Spirit
By Zao

Romance Of The Southern Spirit

Every kiss is a goodbye kiss
And every touch is momentary
Like trying to hold her ghost
Yes she dissapears at sunrise
Some times the past is all we have
I see you in my mind so clearly
A salvation to these tired, cold and searching eyes
We fade, we fade away like dream
We come apart at the seam
Every moment comes to an end
Just another fading memory
She let life destroy her
Move through me like a ghost
No one to break thier blades
No one to cut their throats

All of your words will wash away
My broken heart stills mends
But you could care less anyway

for Mother

Just wanted to invite everyone to look at all my christmas posts of old…ahh, i still hate the holiday season…and i think you should all read the assortment of blogs i have done on the seasons…

we even have a few letters from the fambly!

they can be found here:

Here

and

Here

Robert posed a few questions on the Morality and God post that I thought deserved a little attention (actually, all of them from everyone were good, but this is a good easy place to start I think, the conversation that ensued after the post delighted me though, so thanks to those of you that participated, feel free to continue!)

Robert says:

Matt you say God created man and woman imperfect. Is the freedom and ability to do wrong an imperfection or part of perfection?

I don’t really think freedom nor ability to do wrong would be the act of creating imperfection…but creating us in the LIKLIHOOD that we will screw it all up and then planting the device by which we will fail Him in the middle of the garden, then providing the Serpent to tempt man. It’s that the Bible teaches that God essentially SET MAN UP FOR FAILURE that makes HIM the bad guy, that is imperfection.

Regarding God creating evil? I think God IS good (He defines it by his being God). Evil exists when we do that which is not of God. Its not created surely?

Lets take a literalistic view here.

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7, KJV)

The Bible says God created evil. Creating choice is one thing, but creating evil is entirely another. IF god created something (out of nothing or void) that we can definitively say we don’t need (bad things aren’t needed surely?) then isn’t that just setting us up to fail? Why create the unnecessary? And the Sovereign God argument, that God did it so it must be part of his perfect will etc, is bunk because he must know that it is far beyond reasonable comprehension for us feeble minded humans and that our lack of understanding will CAUSE many of us (myself) to go astray. Once again HE is creating the chaos, just like the Bible says.

I know this is brief, tomorrow I intend to bring up the different views that exist regarding God and Satan—one being that Lucifer is the good guy—what do you think?

Adding more information here for Russ:

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A new tradition begins in the glory that is RagingRev.com </ego> Fun Fridays ! I am gonna try to do this every friday and just post something fun or funny…and today I have QUITE the treat for everyone. A nice Rock n’ Roll video that everyone is SURE to enjoy!

my favorite parts:

1: Awesome guitarist, I hear he plays for Dimmu Borgir now!!!1

2: Acrylic Drums!

3: its a 14 peice band or something

5: the off camera mosh pit

6: Mounty speak and ZAP!!!

7: ITS ROCK N ROLL MAN!

I was looking at my stats today and I suddenly realized that this blog has recieved over 10,000 Unique hits and number 10,000 occured sometimes November 23rd, 2008. Thats pretty good especially considering that the first hit happened on October 3rd, 2008. Right now we are at about 16,000. \/\/007!

and my alexa ranking is currently hovering around 120k – 150k

Are morality and god interdependent?

In other words, can morals exist outside of the spectrum of theism?

Or, in other other words, is god the originator and defining substance behind morality?

Recently myself and the Rev. Russ Troester had another long chat, this time we touched on the subject of belief in god essentially being the basis for morality (forgive me if I am putting words in your mouth Russ, this is the understanding I have). Since we often talk during the end of my work day I had to cut the conversation off kind of abruptly (always when it starts getting good eh?) in order to drive home.

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