Call Me What You Will...

... but I just don't care. If you want to label me, fine. I'm a fundamentalist, I'm a Baptist, I'm a three and a half point Calvinist (not quite sold on the whole 'irresistable grace' thing). I'm a teetotaler, I'm a radical right wing conservative. I'm a half nerd, I'm a music junkie. I'm a free thinker *GASP!*.

You can throw labels at me and on me all day long and they may sort of help you figure out who and what I am, or give you clues into what I think, but I've got news: It doesn't work.

So much of life gets caught up in stupid arguments over meaningless terms. Terms and words don't matter. The thoughts and actions behind them do. Look at Obama. He said "change" and we have seen change, but it wasn't what we were thinking, it was what he was thinking and what he has done that has indeed 'changed' us from bad to worse.

Sacred circles are perhaps the worst about these sort of things. Christians divide themselves and bicker and seperate from each other over terms. They say the exact same thing, but the terms are different and so they divide. They do not look at what God said, they simply know what some preacher told them and that's it and they stay hooked to rhetoric of which they know nothing of the source. "I'm an independent fundamental baptist" they say and will disagree and separate from anyone who goes to a "First Church of Somewhere" or "Somewhere Church". The doctrine is the same between the First Baptist Church and the First Church of Somewhere, but one isn't called Baptist and so they divide.

It's sad, it's ridiculous, but there it is.

I'd call for us to just lay aside the terms and look at what people are actually saying. I'd call for people to go back to Scripture. To go back to the thoughts and actions that form the terms and hold to that. But I know I'm only one small voice. I know nobody will listen. So I'm not going to bother. Go on, keep dividing over terms. Keep being violent towards your brothers and sisters over terms and labels.

Go ahead, ask me what I am. I'll give you labels. You'll agree or disagree because I know what terms to use, but in ideology we may be as different as night and day, just using the same words. But hey, do whatever makes you happy.

Keep using your labels and having your arguments over words. Just leave me out of it.

Oh you poor neglected blog...

Well, I should have changed my header from the snow theme by now, but considering it is still snowing outside, maybe it isn't so out of place.

This sad blog has been badly neglected! I said Merry Christmas and abandoned it. Well, to sum up how this year has gone so far:
1. I played the role of Feste in "Twelfth Night"
2. I turned 21!
3. I watched one friend get engaged and then proceeded to become her maid of honor
4. I watched the other single room-mate all but start dating
5. I have officially written over 150 poems (I broke the 150 mark a couple weeks ago)

All in all, not bad for four months work.

Now, to the point of me even remembering this blog - The Laws of Etiquette and Dating.

I'm well aware that there are laws governing the behaviour of gentlemen and ladies. I am also well aware that most of them are lost on the younger generations. I, being the young whipper-snapper I am, have been raised with to use sense and follow the broader and general guidelines of conduct and etiquette, but I have also grown up in a post-feminazi movement world and therefore my idea of how men ought to treat women they are dating is perhaps a bit skewed.

Please allow me a moment to re-trace my thinking on the subject so you can perhaps understand my conclusion.

It all started in watching countless men on campus carrying pink backpacks, oversized purses, and other bags for their girlfriends. I didn't pay very much attention to it though until one morning I had the rare privelege of watching my friend's fiancee walk half the campus out of his way so he could take his beloved's bag from her. My initial response was that it was utterly ridiculous and absurd that he should inconvenience himself by walking so far out of his way. If he would have waited to where the sidewalks met and taken it that would have been a little better in my mind.

With that, I started pondering the proper protocol for such things. Surely he was being extreme and love struck ridiculous. Surely! After mulling over it a few days I hit the internet and began researching gentleman's etiquette.

I found nothing about whether or not men should carry a lady's backpack, but I did discover Victorian etiquette and then recalled things I had seen in old movies and read in old books.

If memory serves correctly, a gentleman should always help a lady when he sees she is carrying something large and/or heavy. Weighing in what I did find about Victorian etiquette, I believe a man would have volunteered to carry something large and heavy before a woman could attempt to pick it up. If he didn't see her til after she had it in her arms, he would insist on taking it from her. Chivelrous and commendable.

I then compared that to the behaviour of modern men (on campus in particular) and have come to the general conclusion that men who do so are the exception, not the norm. (Unless of course you're carrying a large stack of costumes that look like they're about to fall. Then most of them will offer help.)

This lead me to the question of whether or not I would let my boyfriend (hypothetically speaking, for you see I am single) carry my backpack for me. My current conclusion is this: If he has proven himself a gentlemen towards other ladies and offers to help them with heavy bags, boxes, books, and so forth, then yes. If he walks past girls struggling to stand up-right for how heavy their school bag is and couldn't care less whether or not she can barely hold the enormous box she must carry, then most certainly not!

Why, you ask? Simply put - I like consistency. If he is consistantly a gentleman in that area then I have no problem with it because I know he is simply doing it to be a gentleman and not just out of affection for me. If he is not, then I (being the wary and cynical old maid that I now am) am apt to get very suspicious if he suddenly turns into Mr. Darcy and will just as likely think he's buttering me up as anything. As well, I have a generally held belief (based on observations and general patterns of human behaviour) that a man (or woman) will do all sorts of crazy things while dating to secure affections that he (or she) have no intention of continuing after the wedding. I would hate to get used to being treated like a delicate flower to turn into a pack mule later.

Am I saying my opinion is right/should be adopted by women everywhere? No. I'm considering this a matter of sheer preference and opinion of lowly blogger.

For as decided as I am however, this opinion is only preliminary and not cemented just yet. Therefore any comments, feedback, opposing arguements, etc. are appreciated. (Arguements are welcomed, but I suggest they be good arguements and well backed if you wish for me to take them seriously.)

Merry Christmas!

Well, I've been pitifully neglectful of this dear blog, but never fear, I am here! ... just long enough to post and run away again. ;o)

Anyway...

This is one of my favorite times of year - the house is cluttered with wrapping paper, lights are... strewn, the mantle and various free spaces are occupied with a wide assortment of mangers, snowmen, and other Christmasy knick-knacks. In my CD player are Christmas CD's, and renditions of Christmas songs ranging from horrible to magnificent are being played by nearly every radio station. Even the mall is festooned in green, red, silver, and gold.

Everyone is busy shopping, kids are ticking off the days til they can tear open the wrapping paper to see what secrets it holds, and in spite of the less than ideal economy there is still Christmas. That is the wonder of this holiday - even though you may not be able to give the big expensive gifts you wanted to, even though you might not get that gift you've been eyeing for months now, it hardly matters. The point of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of a King. Sure, it's fun to get presents, give presents, and spread cheer but it is hardly the point.

Christmas is a global thanksgiving. The pagans and the redeemed alike get together with family and friends and whether they say it or not, they show they are thankful for the people that are around them and the blessings they've received. The redeemed has the added bonus of being thankful for Jesus' birth in that smelly, dirty manger 2,000 years ago.

It is easy, I confess, to get wrapped up (pun intended) in the gift exchanges, killer sales, and shiny objects which catch our eye; but let us not forget this year the reason it's called CHRISTmas.

You asked for it.

Well, we get our vote for toasters. Apparently the American people have lost their minds. We have voted in Obama, we have voted in a democratic house and senate. But hey, it looks like gay marriage might be banned in a few states.

I'm still trying to make heads and tails of this election, but I can't. It just doesn't add up. I suppose I overestimated the human American intellect.

Well folks, if you voted for this loser (or didn't vote at all) then you've gotten what you deserve. If this country becomes socialistic and we all go to the poor house remember - you're the dolts that asked for it. If your rights and liberties are taken away don't cry to me. You asked for it.

If we're so stupid to vote in Obama (who is only questionably a natural born American citizen, btw) then we've gotten precisely what we deserve.

Glad I'm just an ambassador here, or I'd be getting worried about now!

Obama-Biden 2008! A Vote for Toasters!

This is part of a transcript I read on rushlimbaugh.com.

RUSH: This next is unreal. Joe Biden was on the Today show talking to the hostette there, Meredith Vieira, who asked him, "What specifically will your tax plan do to boost the economy?"

BIDEN: Our tax plan would take that tax cut of another $130 billion that John wants to give to people making over $250,000 next year, not let it go forward and give it to the middle class, the very people who desperately need it to stay in their homes, to buy food, to take care of the gas to fill up their tank, to be able to go out and buy a toaster, to unemployed people.

RUSH: To go out and buy a toaster! Joe Biden, Obama will give you a toaster! Along with a rice cooker left over from the supply in Cuba that Fidel Castro failed to give away to all of his people. Obama is going to give you a toaster.

Yup! My unemployed dad is in dire need of going out and buying a toaster! Doesn't need health insurance, groceries, or money to pay the bills, but a toaster.

Obama-Biden 2008 - Our Hope For America.