Bradley!

I'm following in the footsteps of some others.

Goals for the Next Five Years
1. Become Credit Debt Free - Fuck credit cards. Or at least, fuck carrying a balance on one. I am making active effort to remove all money owed to banks on credit cards, at which point I will select one with the best rewards, and begin using it the right way: as a tool to use somebody else's money for a period of 30 days or less, but not more.

2. Establish a substantial savings account - Like many people in their mid twenties, I have not given due consideration to the future. My savings account has been started, but needs to grow faster. Solving #1 will really help with this one as well

3. Reduce Frivolous Spending - I've already started on this. Study of myself has shown that the bulk of my wasted dollars goes towards eating at restaurants instead of cooking for myself. This doesn't mean "I spent $5 on fast food" but half the time it means "I spent $12 and a tip on a nice meal... more often than I made something at home"

I'm currently in the middle of a two-week habit-change challenge to not buy anything at a restaurant the entire fourteen days. (Today was the last day of week one). I have cooked many things I've never made before: Grilled Veggie Wraps, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Sweet Potato Fries, A Low-Sodium Chicken Parmesean, Home Made Healthy-Cooked Chicken Fingers, Some Pretty Awesome French Toast, and from-scratch Buttermilk Pancakes.

4. Take a bad-ass vacation - I haven't been on an honest-to-god vacation in a really long time. Usually when I take a week off work I just hang out around the house. I want to go somewhere cool, and do things that are really relaxing (IE: Not going on a death march around the city just because I haven't seen every historically significant dingus in the limits. I'll decide the things I want to see, but still put the emphasis on relaxing)

5. Weigh 220 Pounds - I weighed, at my heaviest, 360 pounds. I now weigh 302. Still a fatty. I want to reach a healthy, realistic weight, which would be right around 220.

I've already joined a gym, Urban Active, and am having good success running and lifting weights in tandem. The cooking for myself in point 3 will also help this effort.

6. Achieve normal blood pressure - An extension of point 5, it is my hope that continued exercise and weight loss will return my blood pressure to normal levels and allow me to stop taking the expensive medicine.

7. Don't Die - It bears mentioning

8. Get Promoted - If this isn't accomplished by this coming March/April it will be a travesty. I'm pretty sure I have a good chance though.

9. Take adult learning art classes - I can draw reasonably well for someone who has never been taught anything about it. I want to be taught something about it.

10. Assuming everything goes according to plan, buying a house before I turn 30 would be pretty cool. It'll have a hot tub, and it'll rock.

New Blog Entry: I was a Best Man

http://www.bradley-online.com/bloglike/i-was-a-best-man/

I got a goddamn ovation at work today. It was weird.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Okay, so here's the abridged version

1. Thursday night went and saw Terminator Salvation, and I think it confirmed that I'm just not made for midnight showings anymore. Kept falling asleep again. Unless I get a decent amount of sleep beforehand I think I'll skip subsequent midnight movies (well I'll probably go see Harry Potter at midnight still)
2. I ended up rewatching the movie on Sunday night with Kristy, Justin and Christina, and I think it's pretty good, although very different from previous Terminator movies. I'd like, at some point, for them to show me John Conner doing something worthy of all the attention he gets.
3. Friday evening, myself, Jeff and Seamus headed to Chicago for the weekend. We arrived at my brothers place shortly after midnight, and went downtown to have a couple beers and see a few sights.
4. Once we were all up on Sunday morning, we proceeded to go on the Chicago Death March. The original plan was to walk "For about a half hour" then catch a bus to Wrigley Field and see some shops, then head off in other directions. After the half hour and walking all the way to wrigley field, we walked for about 3 hours without breaking stride except for traffic.
5. About an hour into the walk, my new white linen shirt got snagged on a stray barb on a fence which ripped two fist-sized holes in it. So I got to wear a torn up shirt the rest of the day
6. I felt tired as fuck at this point, being about a hundred pounds heavier than the next largest person on this walk, and Ryan was like "If we walk long enough down this way we'll end up at Navy Pier, which I think we should do." He points off to a building whose shadow was partially visible through the mists. I immediately insist we switch to public transit.
7. We did catch a bus finally after about another hour of walked and then have another hourish walk from the bus stop to the Pier.
8. Navy Pier was incredibly awesome. There was a lot to do there, though we settled with getting dinner and some really awesome fudge. We headed out to see a few more sights before catching a cab back to Ryan's apartment, my legs throbbing from the effort.
9. We grabbed a couple cases of beer and proceeded to play Hearts back at Ryan's apartment before calling it a night around 2 AM, then setting out back for home fairly early.
10. Today, I got up around 9 and had breakfast and went grocery shopping. I checked my Blood Pressure while at the grocery store, and was very pleased to see I was pulling damn near perfect numbers:

11. Ended up spending pretty much the rest of the day today with Jane, who watched Into the Woods with me. Heres a spiffy picture of us

So, here's what's up.

I'm spending a good deal of my freetime developing software for an upcoming web magazine called "Geeks of Unusual Size". Not a paid gig, but it's a friend who is pulling the people together. I was originally tapped to be a lead writer for the tabletop gaming section, but my desire for a project to work on gave me a desire to volunteer for the developer job.
The part I was worried about was designing the visual look of the site, something that I've been traditionally pretty poor at. My knowledge of CSS is pretty atrophed, and picking colors that work together has never been a strong suit. But after watching a couple YouTube examples, I decided to give designing the visual design in photoshop a go. This is what I came up with:


After I had the layout made in photoshop, using the slice tool, it took about two hours worth of effort to turn it into compliant CSS and HTML. You can look at it here, if you like: http://bradley-online.com/gous/

I'm still futzing around with it to make it compatible across browser before I go back to sifting through code to try and get it final, the goal being to have it finished by Friday.

Things with Jane are going extremely well, which feels good to say, as I had some encroaching paranoia leak in over the last week that she was losing interest, and rapidly. It was more or less a case of her being really uphappy with her work situation and thus not feeling super up to talk much during the week. I was interpreting this as disinterest due, in large, to a personal history of good things being temporary and prone to being rent asunder at a moment's notice.

However, this turned out not to be the case. I spent more or less all day Saturday and Sunday hanging out at her place watching movies. Save a trip to the mall so she could shop and going to get Turkish food at a place off of Bethel Road (which was a first, in memory, for me.) I also discovered that my hatred for tea isn't for tea itself, but for the overprocessed taste of cheap tea. The good green tea she gave was was rather good.

All in all, it was a very good, if simple weekend.

Oh, she met my mother as well. I had lunch with her (mom) Sunday afternoon at the tuttle food court, prior to meeting up with Jane. My mom has been struggling to stay hands off with her questions about how the whole thing is going, given her naturally inquisitive nature about every last thing her kids are invovled in, but asking her ot not say Hello when I was meeting her at the same place might as well have been asking her to willfully submit to waterboarding.

This coming weekend I'm going to visit my Brother in Chicago and explore the city in general. It'll be nice to have a four day weekend to get away on.

I suppose that's about it. Take it easy, everyone.

-B

Weekend Recap, Numbered List Edition:
1. Thursday Night I did a trial run on the dinner I was going to make for Jane on Friday. It was fortuitous I did this, because I undercooked it the first time. The second time it was resplendent. Tasha was gracious enough to participate in the clinical trial while nearly finishing up Dexter Season 1 with me.
2. I had originally planned on grabbing lunch and dinner with Jane on Friday, but on Thursday she told me she had taken dinner Friday to be in lieu of lunch. This was fine. It also made for a nice surprise when she asked me Friday if I was still free for lunch because she decided she really wanted to get together before she went to do her other things on Friday.
3. Lunch and Dinner both went very well. I like Jane, like, a lot. I'll stop there before this post gets to sappy.
4. Saturday Roger, Kurrie and Va came over to play Rock Band, but left fairly early. So I joined Jason, JEss, Justin and Kristy at the Catacombs, our local neighborhood Fetish Club. It cost $15 to get in, but was BYOB so you drink your own booze while you are there instead of paying bloated bar prices.
5. While at said Fetish Club I observed a girl get lit on fire, a man get whipped and a two naked girls going to town on each other in a side room, one of whom was attached to a cross, with a fairly large crowd watching the whole way. (I chose to not watch, I would have felt weird doing so.)
6. The fetish club was an interesting place to check out, especially for someone like me who is decidedly not goth. I'll probably go back at some point with people, but I don't see it being a normal destination.
7. I'm developing software for a new geek blog website, Geeks of Unusual Size. This is not my idea, which is keeping me motivated since these dudes are counting on me. This is also a good project to cut my teeth on with Rails. I might post some demos up here as I finish them.

Okay, so the weekend.

Saturday night was the Easter Vigil, which meant my parents were being confirmed as members of the Catholic Church. I, not being a religious person, rebuffed all attempts by them to get me to go to church, but since it was something special for them, it was hard to say no. I went.

Upon approaching the Church, I bumped into a schoolmate of mine, Clint Stuck, who I did not fucking recognize at all. I went to school with this dude from the first grade onwards (I wouldn't say we were exactly friends past 4th grade or so, but I knew him). He used to be clean shaven and short haired, and now he was rocking the shaggy hair and a pretty fierce beard. I thought he was just a nice catholic greeting a stranger when he asked for my hand.

Clint: "Are you joining too?"
Me: "Oh! God, no."

He left my side shortly thereafter.

So I find my seat next to my uncle, who is also not catholic but supporting my Mom and Dad. We found a book in the pews called "Breaking Bread, 2009". Which is the catholic guidebook for the year. In it you find what's going to happen at every service for the year, as well as the hymns that are going to be sung.

They didn't stick to the schedule.

So, at the beginning, they are, according to the book, doing seven scripture readings, following by a response sung psalm. They did the first reading, than the second, the fourth, the sixth. When they started jumping around I started looking around at my uncle, who was trying to figure it out.

Uncle Rick: "Do you know what's going on?"
Me, whispered "No, I'm completely fucking lost."

During the scripture reading about the resurrection, the priest was singing the gospel rather than just reading it. So every line was delivered in that same sing-songy church a Capella. (I'm sure you know what I mean.)

He sang, about the apostles seeing Jesus risen, "And they were a-mazed". A more modern version might have the additional sung lines:
"They were all like, 'whoa'
'That was bad ass'"

The biggest wtf moment for me came at the end, after the communion.

It started off a little weird, as my uncle and I were trying to keep up with standing when we were supposed to. The church stood up for communion, and my uncle goes "This isn't for us"

"I, uh, think we still stand though."

My mom laughs audible and urges us to stand.

The communion is done by pouring wine from a main goblet into four smaller brass (gold?) goblets. These four goblets are handled by church folks, and the members take turns drinking from one of the four goblets, the handler finishes off the wine after everyone has gone, leaving none left.

The priest then does the dishes.

No, I'm not joking.

He collects the five goblets on the table up front, and an altar boy brings him a vial of (holy?) water. He pours the water into one of the goblets, swishes it around, dumps it into the next cup, and towels out the first one. An alter boy carries the "clean" cup off, and I wonder if they do a more thorough washing later or leave it to the holy water.

He does this for all the cups, until all the, presumably dirty, water, along with the clinging bits of wine and collection of backwash from a hundred people into the main cup.

And then he fucking drinks it.

My uncle and I look at each other instantly, but we were apparently the only ones who thought anything weird had happened. I've been told that's standard Sunday affair for Catholicism.

All in all, interesting to see how it all works, but I won't be in a hurry to attend a 2.5 hour service again.

Sunday
On Sunday, I had a date. I recently decided to give online dating a go. I've been signed up on OK Cupid and Plenty of Fish for a little while, but never checked them much. When I logged onto OK Cupid last week on a whim, I discovered I had a "woo" from someone. I wrote her back and we spent a few evenings talking, and decided to go ahead and meet on Sunday.

We went to Glow-in-the-Dark Mini-Golf in Gahanna. I had my best mini-golf showing, I think ever. Got 2 hole-in-ones, and got something like 41 strokes for all 18 holes.

The plan was to then go get Frozen Custard, but apparently I didn't realize a lot of places don't open up on Easter. So we instead ended up going to Easton and getting Graters and sitting in the food court hanging out and talking, eventually went into Gameworks because she was thirsty, and we mocked some silly kid playing a dinosaur hunting game from afar.

It was around 6:30 at this point, so we decided to get dinner, which we got at Applebees.

I took her back to her car, and we had a very nice goodbye.

As for what I know about her at this point, she is of Russian decent, her parents came over separately from Russia and met in Chicago. They are Jewish, but she is non-religious, like me (which I don't have a problem with someone who is religious, but I don't have to worry about it coming up later about why I'm not).

She's possibly more sarcastic than me, if you consider that possible. She likes Video Games, though she likes shooters more than the kinds of games I typically like. And she does Krav Maga four times a week.

All in all, I had a pretty great time. It was as good as any date I've been on, and quite a bit better than most. We're going to go to the Zoo this weekend for a second date (Movie if it rains).

Check out The new comic

Stupid people piss me off

And no, I don't mean "Believing in God" is stupid.

EDIT 1:
I realize that you guys probably won't be able to see this.

Basically, Devin posted something from a book which he claimed refuted atheism, and in the comments went on to say that atheism is a religion, and that atheism said it was OK to lie, steal and kill.

EDIT 2: Fuck it, here's the whole post:

Pulled from the book Christianity for Skeptics:

Standard arguments employed by atheistic apologists:

1. The existence of God is incompatible with the existence of evil.

This objection does not logically deny the existence of God but merely questions or challenges God's character or means of operation. The existence of evil is not compatible with the existence of God. There is no logical contradiction. In order to make a contradiction the atheist must introduce new premises or assumptions. The atheist presumes a world view because of a prior assumption which he entertains which is, "Evil should not exist with God." This assumption "begs the question."

Devin's note: I should also point out that along with this, I found a striking argument for Christianity pertaining to evil in this book:

A world where nothing could go wrong would in fact be a world without God.

Think about it ;) (and this notion is what made C.S. Lewis convert to Christianity!)

2. God is a projection of man's imagination.

This objection invented by Feuerbach and popularized by Freud is without substance. The argument is guilty of committing the "genetic fallacy." In the genetic fallacy one seeks to discredit a view by merely going to its origin. One does not disprove a belief by merely going back and describing how that belief originated. You do not refute a belief by simply dating it or explaining its origin. The psychological objection is not a logical explanatin but a logical fallacy.

3. Since God cannot be scientifically demonstrated, God cannot exist.

The person who seeks to refute God on the basis of science commits the fallacy of reductionism or scientism. To test God on the basis of science is to use a false criterion. Science is useful in testing a number of phenomena, but to suggest that God must fit the scientific dress is arbitrary and wrongheaded. Science is useful for testing some things but not all things. This objection is also guilty of committing the categorical fallacy, e.g. "Tell me, what is the taste of blue?" The person who argues all things must be tested by science is not able to test the assertion "All things must be tested by science." How does one test love, values, morals, logic, beauty, etc. scientifically?

4. People believe in God because they are culturally conditioned.

This argument if taken to its logical conclusion would not only refute Chrisitanity but also the atheistic beliefs. The person who advocates this assumption must also be prepared to be judged by this principle. If all beliefs are conditioned, then the unbeliever is also conditioned not to believe. This is a two-edged sword which will not only kill your enemy but will also kill you. The atheists cannot claim special privileges and escape philosophical scrutiny. To suggest that only religious people have hang-ups is to propose a false psychology, a quesionable sociology, and an unverified scientific theory.

5. The idea of God is nonsensical like the idea of square-circles.

This is a straw man argument. The person defines God arbitrarily and subjectively, that God is equivalent to a square circle. Such a move is really in essence building a straw man: in this method you define your opponent's position conveniently in order to shoot him down. To suggest that God is like a square circle is arbitrary. The atheist has no logical or epistemological ground for making this assumption.

6. If God made the world who made God?

This objection presupposes that God hada beginning. The argument "Everything has a cuase, God is a thing, therefore God must have a cause" is a simple version of another "straw man" argument. Here the atheist subjectively and arbitrarily equates God to the order of the created and finite thing. By setting God up on the level of the created, the atheist insists that God must have a cause too. From a logical point of view, "Everything that begins has a cause," but not as the atheists irrationally argue, "Everything must have a cause." Only finite beings and effects need causes; God by definition and essence is not an effect or something made. God is the unmade eternal Creator of the universe. To argue that an unmade being is a contradiction, the atheist must explain how one could maintain the concept of an "uncaused universe." What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

7. Since there is no evidence of God's existence, God does not exist.

The logical response to this objection is to first examine the nature of evidence - what constitutes evidence. Since there is a great amount of dispute as to what is legitimate evidence, we must first settle the issue of evidence. Since the nature and existence of God is unlike any other issue or category, one must approach God's existence axiomatically. If God is the basic ground of reality, then the issue of God's existence is not on the same plane as the issue of the existence of finite elements like humans and potatoes. For example, take the nature of air: debating the existence of God, in a sense, is like debating the existence of air while breathing. If God is the crator of the universe, then he is the necessary pre-condition for all of reality. If God exists, he is the essential element for all existence.

^^^And there is substantial evidence that supports this, both scientifically and historically.^^^

Bring on the debates!

Chris Truex

All this this means is that you can't disprove some sort of god. It also means you can't PROVE it. Congratulations, you're an agnostic. Or a Deist.

The argument for atheism is this: prove it. Theists are the ones making the claim, that God exists. The onus of proof is on the claimant, not on the skeptic. Atheists hold that in a situation that lacks proof, they have no reason to believe. That's not to say that God doesn't exist, but you are starting with the baseline of: God exists, and atheists disbelieve that. An atheist begins with the fact that there is no evidence of God; the believer must provide a reason for the atheist to believe.... Read More

Therefore, number seven is completely wrong. The statement isn't that since there is no evidence of God's existence, therefore God does not exist. The REAL argument is that since there is no evidence of God's existence, there is no reason to believe. Completely different, and a difference often missed by believers.

David Evans

I gotta agree with Chris

Valerie Paul Lifer

but an athiest starts out with a believe that is never proved - the belief that God does not exist. evidence is arbitary. if you look at early/ancient cultures they all have a store about a flood covered the entire earth and only one family who had listened to Someone had built a big boat and had survived.
athiest are making a claim, if you are... Read More an athiest you have a belief system of your own - prove that! instead of trying to dis-prove someone else's belief system why don't you try to prove your own - prove that there is no Superme Being, prove that we all came from soup or a giant comet, prove what you believe and you will find that you probably don't believe in what athiests actually do believe in. athiesism is a religion - it is a belief system.

David Evans

Valerie, we are not attempting to get into a theological/philosophical debate. Chris merely commented on something that was flawed in its own right (the logic of Devin's post). Neither of us are trying to change your beliefs nor do we even want to. As far as your comment on "the flood" story, I am well versed in classics (not to say I know all, ... Read Morebecause I don't), but it is discussed in some of those classes, the parallels between the Christian beliefs and those that pre-date Christianity. The flood was something that was first noted around 2000 BCE and we cannot be sure that they did not get the story from other Sumerians, just as many subsequent religions have also noted it. Now this does not prove that there was no flood, but instead I am saying that this was recorded at least 2 millennia before Christian documents, making it hearsay. Once again we are not attacking religious individuals because we do not care (noting that neither us us are atheists, but rather agnostics).

Devin Martin

No disrespect Chris and David, but what I don't get is how you two who both admit that they are agnostic are so adamant about supporting atheism, a RELIGION. If you two are so bent out of shape to supprt atheism so much, why don't you become atheists then? And does really living a life without a belief in God really much better? REALLY? I've been ... Read Moredown that road before, it's not worth it, believe me.

By the way, your circular arguments don't amount to snuff. And Chris, if you can so confidently disprove the Christian argument for #7, then why didn't you disprove points #1-6?

Chris Truex

Atheism isn't a religion, it's a lack of one. They see no evidence for God, thus they do not believe. I have a few quibbles, but it's a fairly small debate.

I don't become an atheist because I disagree that you can conclude that there is no God. I don't personally believe in God, but that doesn't mean that there CAN'T be. But I digress.

I ... Read Moredidn't bother addressing those other points because they have jack diddily to do with Christianity. All those have to do with some neutral, hands-off, Deist-style deity. Not a Christian God who grants prayers, does miracles, etc. I have never, EVER seen evidence of a God interacting with the physical world. And no, the paradolia of seeing "The Virgin Mary" burnt into toast doesn't count.

As to my life as a non believer, I'm doing just fine, thank you. I have good friends, good family, doing well in school, I've never been suicidal, I've never killed anyone, never felt a desire to steal or defame anyone. Frankly, I don't see what believing in a god would do to improve my life. I wasn't angry with God, or anything retarded like ... Read Morethat; I had a perfectly good experience with religion in my youth. I just realized that I couldn't rationalize believing in something without evidence.

Also, Devin, there were no circular arguments above. Don't know what you're talking about. Anywhoo, the quality of life after belief is totally irrelevant to the discussion. Maybe believing that Ewoks live in my toilet would make my life better, but that doesn't mean that the belief is based in reality (and again, I don't agree that belief makes life better).

And Devin, pulling the old "if you love it so much, why don't you MARRY it" line out is pretty lame.

Devin Martin

First Chris, I'm not saying that if you "love" atheism so much line, but the comments make it almost abundantly clear that both you and David are adamant agnostics, albeit atheists.

Aside from that, the fact that you claim that you live a decent lifestlye proves that you are merely contradicting yourself, no matter if you're agnostic or not. Allow... Read More me to explain.

Under the religions (yes, they are BOTH religions, no matter how much you want to dispute them) of agnosticism or atheism, the general presumption is that there are no moral absolutes, that everything is relative. By admitting being an agnostic or whatever, you are contradicting yourself by saying that you've led a good life so far, good grades, never killed anyone, etc. By believing that there is no God, you are denouncing the fact that without God, there are no moral absolutes, so therefore, you are allowed to kill, steal, lie, etc. because your religion tells you you can.

However, by being an atheist, you are denying that such morals exist because there is no God to enforce them. So my question to you would be, what is keeping you from killing, stealing, lying, etc.? Laws made by man? Or is there SOME structure of absolute morality in your life? To you, there should be relative morality, but since that ... Read Moreis logically untrue, that cannot be. No matter how you slice it, the agnostic OR atheist is in contradiction with himself, not to mention having to know EVERYTHING to be 100% sure that God doesn't exist.

Even Einstein said that he only knows "one half of one percent" ;)

I posted

I am an atheist. I am so because, when confronted with the question after many years of thought on the matter, if I asked myself if I really actually believe in a supernatural supreme power called God, I could not honestly answer yes.

And no, it's not a religion. A religion is many things, while Atheism is a word that describes one specific thing... Read More, an absence of belief in deities. A better description for atheism is "Philosophical Theory". My belief structure is simply that I believe in the natural world with which I interact, and therefore if, as the above poster suggests, I need to "prove my beliefs" I can do so quite easily.

I am a bit taken aback that you say "You are allowed to kill, steal, lie, etc. because [atheism] tells you you can." This is completely ridiculous, as atheism doesn't tell anyone anything. It's a absence of a belief in a deity. It has no organization, structure, symbols, rules or texts to communicate morals or lessons.

I received in reply, from some random girl:

atheism is a religion - it is a set of beliefs. the belief in evolution, the belief that there is not a supreme being, the belief that there is nothing after life on this planet, the belief that your life is insignificant, the belief that there is no absolute morals - only what is personal or governmental percieved as right and wrong, the belief that life has no purpose, the belief that the universe has no purpose

I replied

No, it's not. It is a word that means one thing. No belief in a deity. The fact that your religion which includes supreme beings brings with it a host of other beliefs does not mean that atheism brings with it the opposite of all those beliefs.

a- is a prefix which means "without" or "no"
theism is a word which means "Belief in at least one deity"

A specific atheist may believe all or some of the things you listed, but as atheism is not a religion, he may believe few or none of them as well.

There is no "Atheist Bible" which lists the things atheists have to believe or adhere to. It just means we don't think there is a god. That's all. There is no implicit or explicit canon which all atheists adhere to.

1. I got a fuck ton of boxes from Cassadi today. Tomorrow I suppose I better start packing, as I move in like 10 days.
2. Screwing around with Picasa today, I discovered the photo organization software can make these neat collages. Here is one with some of my nearest and dearest. I need to take more pictures.
3. The party on Saturday was a good time, except the time I had to spend working. That was lame. Thanks to everyone who made it out.
4. I arranged for Rent-A-Center to come pick up my sofa and chair on Wednesday. They apparently didn't understand it was a temporary arrangement. They tried to talk me into keeping it longer. I thought Renting it implied I was going to give it back.
5. I suppose that's all for now. G'night all.