random thought of the day.

i found out a kid i went to school with since middle school got hit by a car and killed this morning. i wasn't really friends with him, wasn't enemies, we just knew each other, went to school with each other.

i saw him a month or so ago at this bar called shenanigan's. i was hanging with my friend and we were drinking a pitcher of beer. i saw this kid in there, he walks up to us, does the whole 'aw man it has been a long time, how are you doin man?' conversation.

after a short conversation he went to go hang out with his friend he was there with.

in hindsight, even though we didn't really say much to each other over the years, i kind of wish i would have put forth the effort to have a worthwhile conversation instead of the basic how is the weather kind of talk.

good ol' hindsight.

i had an elderly customer call in this morning, absolutely upset about the fact that she got notified that she used over $200 of minute usage on her phone plan when she has been spending a lot of time calling doctors and the social security office, when i looked at the account, she actually had over $300 of usage. she was crying because she didn't know how she was going to manage it, and i was able to get it to where she would only pay 30 dollars more instead of the 300+ dollars more. made me feel good.

so i've been with my girlfriend for over 3 1/2 years now and i decided it was time to lock her down for good. i do have the basic plan of how i'm going to do it, but i wouldn't mind some tips or anything from people who have done it before, i'm trying to make it as memorable for her as possible.

she goes to school 180 miles away (graduating from college in may), since valentines day is on a thursday this year, i am going to surprise her by visiting, she doesn't know i took the days off, she doesn't think i'm going up until the weekend after. so on feb 13 i am going to ask her dad for his blessing (i will need some tips on that too if anybody has done that), then the 14th i am driving there. i will already have a reservation at a fancy restaurant we love and i plan on doing it there after we eat dinner and have a couple sangrias. i have already paid off the ring so i have that out of the way.

just looking for some tips, maybe some ideas to polish the plan up a little.

thanks for the replies.
i am working with a bit of a timeline, she has always dropped hints that she wanted to do it before she graduates college. her sorority does a 'rose ceremony' whenever a member of her sorority takes the next step in their relationship, where they pass a rose around and let it go around a couple times and whoever had the next step come, stops the rose. she said she's always wanted to do that, and i would never want to let her miss that.
not to mention, the whole 'in the moment' thing is very helpful, we took a yacht out on lake michigan at navy pier in chicago and watched the fireworks from out on the lake. it was so amazing, i literally almost asked her that night, completely subconsciously, i had the first word coming out of my mouth, but i stopped myself, i didn't want to do it without a ring. so my timeframe came into play and that is how it got to this point.

my random thought:


Damn its been a long time since I've been here...I used to check it every day, usually multiple times a day, I may have even stayed on for hours at a time.

Now I'm engaged, living on my own with her, working full time, and the only time I think about this place is when I happen to notice it in my favorites.

So uh...how's it going?

It has been a while since I last posted anything. I've had a lot of changes in my life that has kept me away (moving, getting married, changing jobs, etc). But I do still lurk every once in a blue moon.

Well today I stood in my first protest, or I guess it would be a counter-protest, against the Westboro Baptist Church. They came to protest at one of the local high schools because our town was listed number 9 on the "queerest cities in the country".

It got me wondering, if anyone has ever done a protest, and if so what was it for?

Also, if you had the opportunity to face the WBC, how would you protest? We did a peaceful protest (well, until the end, when they left everybody flipped them off as they drove by).

Ps. That is good old Shirley Phelps-Roper with all the signs. In all her nutcase glory. We still prevailed. We had much more people and we were drowning out their songs of hate and intolerance, so they actually ended up leaving early.

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Shenmue 3: Extreme Beach Volleyball

To the people who are bitching about this update, think about it, there are members of OUR community who were eating dinner and discussing SHENMUE 3 with YU SUZUKI. It really is amazing. 10 years ago you would have killed for an update like this.

It's just amazing to see the campaign in action, and to know that it is because of how vocal WE were that this even happened. It truly made me happy to see them there with the legend.

I'm watching a few right now. I'm watching Designated Survivor, Timeless, The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead, Ren and Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, and I think that's it right now.

Watched the new Guardians of the Galaxy for the 2nd time last night. I saw it by myself the first time, but took the wife to see it yesterday. I already can't wait for Volume 3.

My random thought of the day is a deep one. Don't take your parents for granted. My dad just suffered a heart attack last night, and it was the scariest thing I've gone through. You may get set in your independence (i know i did) and you may neglect to touch base with your parents on a regular basis, but dammit keep in touch with them. There was a very real moment that I thought I was going to lose my dad, and I couldn't handle it. Just giving my 2 cents. They spend most their lifetime taking care of you, don't neglect to take care of them.

13 years. I used to be one of the more active members on here, but sort of drifted away from this place. I come back from time to time, trying to come by more often. I remember the days of QWERTY taking the piss out of everyone and TEEPO posting his dick and the stories of him fucking his sister. This place has always been so classy.

Thank you for your concerns guys, I do appreciate it. He is stable, they are going to be doing an angioplasty tomorrow morning and we will know more at that time.

I am a very vocal Atheist, as a matter of fact, about a week ago I started writing an essay of sorts. It is far from complete, still very much a rough draft, but I will share it with you in its current form.

Hello, my name is Jeremy, and I’m going to let you know why I’m an atheist. But before I do that, I’m going to address some of the many misinformed preconceptions of atheists.

Atheists must have had a bad upbringing: This is an overstated and unfounded observation. Many, if not most of us (myself included) had a great childhood. I had parents that cared for me, I lived in a good neighborhood, and I didn’t associate with bad influences. As a matter of fact, my parents made me go to church.
Why are you atheists so angry with god?: There’s a couple things that are wrong with this. First I’m going to reiterate that we don’t believe in god, so we definitely aren’t mad at him. And if there is anything we may be angry about it is most likely a result of religious privilege, lawmakers trying to tear down the wall separating church and state, and bigotry.
Atheists don’t believe in anything: This one is particularly frustrating. Just because we don’t believe in god, doesn’t mean we don’t believe in anything. We believe in compassion, love, and doing right by everybody, regardless of beliefs or lack thereof.
What is the point to living if there is no afterlife?: The answer to this one is simple. This is the only life we have, so we should live it to the fullest, and do everything in our power to leave the world a better place than it was when we came into it.
Without god, what is keeping you from killing or raping somebody?: First of all, if god is the only thing keeping you from doing these things, please stay away from my family and get help. I think we can all agree that life is a lot better when there isn’t so much negativity. Doing bad things makes you feel bad and does harm to others, why would we want to do that?
Atheists eat babies: No we don't, don’t be stupid.
Atheists worship Satan: We don’t believe in Satan any more than we believe in god. So this is untrue.
If you don’t believe in god, why do you spend money that says “In god we trust” on it?: Unfortunately at this time we don’t have much of a choice now do we? There are many groups fighting to replace “In god we trust” with the original motto (E Pluribus Unum). Let’s hope this is made possible so it is fair across the board.
Why can’t you just leave religious people alone?: If somebody wants to practice their faith on their own time, without inconveniencing anybody else, then go for it, no skin off my back. There are, however, various situations that it is NOT ok to discuss your faith. Here are a few examples if you’re unsure about what I mean: A teacher in a public, tax funded school cannot impose their faith upon students (this is perfectly fine in private schools). Another example is a lawmaker who uses their religion in political decisions, that’s a big no no. Should I go for a third example? Yes? Ok, an officer of the law, who gets paid by taxpayers, cannot proselytize while on duty. These are a few real life situations that actually happen, and unfortunately in most of these situations, they go unchecked. So in those situations, no, we will not leave you alone. Not anymore.

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of why I am an atheist. So here goes. The reason I don’t believe in god is simply because I’ve not been given any evidence to support that god exists.
That’s it.
I know that you feel him and that too many things happened in your life for you not to believe.
I know that the trees and the clouds are proof to you. It isn't.
I know that the bible says it, so that must be proof. It isn't.
I get it. Really, I do.
I understand that you were most likely raised to believe what you believe. I understand it is comforting to you. And more power to you, if you find solace in god, who am I to stop that?
But you have to understand where we come from if you’re truly going to understand us as people.
If I told you there was an invisible pink unicorn standing behind you, you’d want proof. And if I told you that you can’t prove it doesn’t exist, you wouldn’t accept that.
It’s the same thing with god. If you cannot provide evidence to support it, you can’t be upset when we don’t believe you.
I will leave it with this. There are many people who are closet atheists, but who are stuck in situations (religious families, relationships, communities) and may feel they are alone. My message to you is, you aren't. You shouldn’t have to hide who you really are to satisfy somebody else's beliefs of who you should be. Reach out. There’s groups like the United Coalition of Reason that can help you connect with likeminded people.
We're all in this together.

I am still debating whether to include something about the many contradictions in the bible (like night and day being created before the sun, or when Adam and Eve had 2 sons, Kane and Abel, and then Kane killed Abel and went to live among the people in the land of Nod.....where the hell did the people in the land of Nod come from?!), but i'm not sure if it fits with the theme of the essay.

Himuro wrote: A big problem atheists/agnostics make is the assumption that being religious means you're anti-science.

Although it isn't true for everybody, there is a large percentage of religious people who won't accept any scientific research that doesn't support their beliefs.

Got this for 10 bucks including shipping.

There are too many things that are wrong with religion. There are over 4000 religions and all of them are convinced they are the one true religion.

As Richard Dawkins said, "We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."

I also agree with a post shared on the Athiest Republic and that is that we are all born atheist until somebody starts telling us lies. Those of you that identify as Christian would believe an entirely different story if you were born in Pakistan. It all starts with indoctrination.

It is also a problem when politicians use their position to push their religious agenda (ie. Stem cell research, abortion, birth control, lgbt rights, etc). Especially since any evidence that is scientifically proven is scoffed at if it doesn't support their beliefs. This makes it very difficult to get anything done in a Republican controlled Senate.

I have to live in a country that calls people pushing for political correctness snowflakes, when they themselves can't deal with a red Starbucks cup because it doesn't show something about Jesus.

With evidence, faith isn't necessary.