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"November 30, 2018"     Prompt: "What's your favorite thing to do with your family or a friend?"I'm a little old fashioned I guess but my favorite family activity is and always was to gather around the table and have a meal. Family meals are so important and they have gone to the wayside. Even nuclear families have lost touch with each other as both parents work, usually different shifts and dinner has become a thing of the past. Shame on us! Prompt: "Who is a person you met this year that surprised or delighted you and why?"I have met quite a few people this year who have surprised me.Many of them are veterans here at the veterans home where I live. When I first met a few of them my first impression was not favorable but every one of them has turned out to be good friends.    |
| "November 29. 2018" "Prompt: "You have delighted us long enough." Mrs. Bennet said this to her daughter Mary after she sang off key while playing the piano in Pride and Prejudice By Jane Austen. When have you been delighted by people long enough?" I am usually delighted enough as Mary says, when I walk down the halls of the Veterans Home in which I live and hear the ongoing debate that occurs between two men here who stand around in the hallway debating the meaning of Bible passages that neither have an understanding of. Neither of them make any effort to attend chapel or other regular Bible studies where they can sit under men who actually do know what they are talking about and perhaps learn the truth. Instead they would rather debate passages out in the hallway, making themselves sound like they have some knowledge when in truth neither of them would know Jesus from John the Baptist. Suggesting to them that they should come to Bible study and discuss their topics is useless. It has been tried dozens of times and they always make excuses. There are times I want to simply tell them to shut up. I have interfered a time or two if their discussion was on an important doctrine and set them as straight as I could but I'm sure that was blown off afterward. I've made up my mind to steer clear of their debates as much as possible. As chaplain of the Veteran's Home and as a Christian I have an obligation to "correct, rebuke, and teach" whenever possible. II Timothy 3: 16. However I won't get involved in their foolishness because doing so only fuels them. So like Mary I usually think "Okay. You've impressed us long enough. Now SHUT UP!" Prompt: "What's your favorite holiday movie? Is it a tradition like one you watch every year or something that you've recently discovered? Like mine is It's A Wonderful Life,I could probably repeat every line verbatim but I still watch every year because its a feel good movie."I'm not a big fan of movies, television, or radio. In fact I don't even own a television even though cable is provided where I live free of charge. I do have my cable turned on because it provides my internet but I only use that for email, college, and writing. With that said though there are some movies that I will be looking for on DVD to play on my computer because I watch them every Christmas. One is "A Christmas Carole" any version. I have seen every version made and liked them all. I even liked "Scrooged" even though I don't care for a lot of contemporary movies. So I will be going over to the rec hall as soon as I complete finals and looking for A Christmas Carole. I also love both versions of "Miracle on 34th Street." I love any situation in which the underdog wins and this is certainly one. I never really thought of Santa as the underdog but this portrays a harmless old man being railroaded by a corporation. I love watching him win! I have seen both the old version and the new and I love them both. If I can find them I will watch each back to back even though I know the outcome. Finally I like all three versions of Home Alone. My favorite character is Marvin or "Marv". Since my given name is Marvin perhaps I'm a bit biased but I think he is comical. I especially like Home Alone 2 when Marv encounters the arc welder and goes from human to skeleton and back. I laugh so much my sides hurt! |
| "November 28, 2018" ** Image ID #1971184 Unavailable ** Prompt: "On this 28th day of November in 2012 "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" 1st of the Hobbit film series, directed by Peter Jackson, starring Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen, premieres in Wellington, New Zealand. Have you read the book or watched the movie? “Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit Discuss this quote in your entry. Have fun!" I don't watch movies or television. When I was young I watched a lot of it but as I've grown older I just find I have no real interest in it. Besides I'm a college student now so I don't really have time for television or movies. Most of my off class time is spent reading text books or doing homework. I do play some video games once in a while just to relax a little. I don't watch many movies. If a documentary is required viewing for class I may watch it. Otherwise no. I have to agree with Tolkien when the author says that good times are not much to listen to but hard times make for good stories. Myself I would rather hear something positive but the way of the world is to always listen to bad news. That is why news media report 17 negative stories for every positive story. Don't ask me why humans are attracted to misery. Perhaps if I become a graduate student, which I plan to do, I will research that as my thesis? Prompt: "There are no regrets, just lessons." Jennifer Aniston Write anything you want about this."I would have to agree with Jennifer on this one. I see all the negatives in my life as gifts. While nobody likes to be in emotional or physical pain, it always makes us better people. The Apostle Paul tells us to be thankful in all things. I Thessalonians 5: 18. If we are to be thankful in all things then it also means the Lord wants us to be thankful when we fall upon hard times. In human terms that doesn't seem logical. Why should one be thankful for something that hurts? Yet we go on to read that these things teach us patience, perseverance, temperance, faith, and all good things. So when we consider the benefits of going through trials we begin to understand that Jennifer is correct. There are no regrets. Wisdom is a gift earned by enduring the school of hard knocks. I have an expression I use. It says that "Humans are like plants. We need a hefty helping of manure in order to grow!" |
| "November 27, 2018" "Prompt: Words of the Year: The Oxford Dictionaries Word 2018 is toxic, and 'Misinformation' is Dictionary.com's 2018 word of the year . Use these words in your blog entry. " I would say these are good words of the year. Much of the information shared in dictionaries and encyclopedias is misinformation because what was thought to be true in a previous addition is no longer true in the new edition. Information becomes changed so quickly these days. Getting information out there is much easier thanks to social media and the world wide web. Information can be toxic as well if we let it, Facebook is often toxic as people air their dirty laundry there. So I agree with these two words. "Prompt: “The older I get, the more confused I get. I used to think that age would bring wisdom. It doesn't, it just brings confusion. But I find that this confusion is artistically useful.” John BanvilleWhat does confuse you about this world, and what can you do with that confusion as a writer or an artist?" I get confused about new technology but not much else confuses me. I eventually figure the technology out. I guess I'm very blessed. |
| "November 26, 2018" Prompt: “Take everything that’s bright and beautiful in you and introduce it to the shadow side of yourself.” Parker Palmer How can a person do this? Can you give an example, and do you agree this would work to make the world a better place?" I think the way a person does that is by grieving the Holy Spirit that dwells within a Christian. To grieve the Holy Spirit one needs only to sin and then thumb your nose at the Holy Spirit when He convicts you of that sin. Just sin and keep on sinning. That will achieve it. However the results will not be pretty and it definitely would not help the world or the person doing it. Sin has no good benefit. If there was anything good about sin God would not have cast Satan out of Heaven. However God cannot associate with sin because sin is evil. It has no redeeming qualities.It's like cigarettes. There is absolutely no good quality in a cigarette. People believe there are benefits but in reality there are none. The same applies to sin. It may seem "good" at the moment but in reality it is evil and has no benefit. "Prompt: Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and stars, Use these words in your blog entry."I am not a stargazer. So I really don't know the stars. I wouldn't be able to tell you what star or constellation is what. However I do know that the best time to stargaze is on a cold winter night. By cold I mean below 0 degrees Fahrenheit because all of the haze is gone and the atmosphere is as clear as crystal. On Summer, Spring, and Fall nights there is a lot of haze and fog, which obscures the stars. However the cold winter nights leave the canopy of stars wide open if you can handle the cold! |
| "November 24, 2018" Prompt: "What kind of Mom and Pop stores or restaurants still exist where you live? Do you frequent them as often or do you prefer the larger chains?" I really don't know what mom and pop stores exist around here. I just moved here about a year ago and am still learning my way around. Barboursville WV is a suburb of Huntington WV, the second largest city in the state. There are thousands of stores here and I'm sure there are some mom and pop operations here. I just don't know where they are at. Now in the cities I moved from (Parkersburg WV where I lived for 25 years, and Clarksburg WV where I lived three years), there were three mom and pop stores within walking distance of my houses. I frequented them quite often, more out of convenience than anything else. However I feel that mom and pop operations are good and I hate to see them driven out by the chain stores. Chain stores will eventually take over and rule us. I'm glad I won't be around to see it. "Prompt: Have you read any good books or articles lately? While reading the book/article did you discover something you didn't know before? If possible, include a link to the item."I'm a student at Marshall University so naturally I have read new books recently and learned a lot from them. While I don't have links to the books because they were text books some of the books I read were "Paris of Appalachia", which talked about the small town feeling of Pittsburgh. I also read "Handbook of Appalachia", which discussed various aspects of Appalachia such as folklore, folk art, coal mining, and more. (I took Appalachian Geography for a science course this semester.) I also read a book called Mountain Masters, Slavery, and the Sectional Crisis in North Carolina)for this class. We each had to choose a book from the references page of Handbook of Appalachia, read that book and do a report on it. I chose this one because I hated the idea that one human ever owned other humans and thought maybe I could gain some insights into what drove slavery. I was always of the impression that it was economics and I believe free labor may have been the original motive. After reading Mountain Masters and comparing it to the slavery of the Hebrews in Egypt I began to realize that slavery was driven more by fear and prejudice than anything else. Slave owners in the south feared that the African-American population would run wild and commit heinous crimes if freed so they sought to control them with slavery. I found that repugnant personally but that was the predominant fear even among non-slave holding white southerners. Other books I read include Smuggler Nation, which discussed the history of smuggling in the United States. I read it for "Drug Wars", my history 305 class. I also read "Happy Pills", which discussed the pharmaceutical industry and some psychoactive medications in the USA, particularly Miltown and Valium. The last book I read in Drug Wars was "Chasing the Scream", which gave me a whole new outlook on the "drug epidemic" in the USA and especially here in Huntington. I learned that the drug war was essentially started because a man named Harry Anslinger was put in charge of a minuscule government agency called the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The FBN barely had an operating budget and Harry knew Washington well enough to see that his agency and career were on thin ice. So he basically started the drug war to secure more and more funding for his agency. He went after mafia figures convincing Washington bureaucrats that they were public enemy number one. He cracked down hard on anything he thought people might use as recreational drugs. After all, the 18th amendment and prohibition had worked out so well why not try it with drugs? He knew drugs would come in regardless just as alcohol did during the Prohibition era. However he saw an opportunity to fund his career and convinced Washington to attempt to stop all drug traffic. Now we have cartels springing up in one country after another as traffickers fight for control of drug traffic. Anyway the whole drug policy is what is driving the "epidemic". If we would allow doctors to control drugs we could tax them, regulate the purity, and put cartels out of business. That however will never happen! So yes, I have read some pretty interesting books and articles. I also took Comparative Politics where I studied the politics of several other countries and read two books for it. I also read several different journal articles for it and wrote a ten page research article about the government of Canada for it. The article required me to use at least ten sources. I read about 20 journal articles and used 11 of those along with some online sources and E-books. I don't like E-books because people can access them for free. If they read them for free us authors cannot get paid! However I wrote my paper. So to answer the original question I have done a ton of reading since the semester started in August and learned a lot from it. The only class I did not have a text book for was Management Information Systems (MIS-200), which was a class on Office 2016. We used an online program to learn it. The program is new and had some bugs but I still learned a lot. The link for the program we used is posted next. However you need to have a key from an instructor to register and use the program. If anybody wants to learn to use office or teach employees the basics of Office 2016 I recommend this program. It has some issues but I learned a lot from it. https://jasperactive.com/Login.aspx. image:2098718-33%} |
| "November 23, 2018" Prompt: "Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe” ~Ed Lester Do you agree or disagree with this quote? Can it be that simple?" I believe it literally is that simple. Life is set up to be simple. God designed it that way. Man is the one who complicates the obvious. I know I complicate things. God provides a superhighway and a Lincoln Continental to drive on that highway and most men would rather be off in the woods riding an ATV! It doesn't make much sense but it's the way we operate. We complicate the obvious because "It can't be that simple!" Prompt: "As the holiday season approached, I noticed there were more and more pre-black Friday sales than ever. My in-box and mail box was overloaded all hyping one sale or another. It is now officially the holiday season were you influenced to shop more or turned off with all the hype? Do you feel your shopping patterns will be the same or have they evolved over time to meet the new trends?"All the ads turned me off. I hate greed and Christmas is the greediest holiday of all. I don't shop Black Friday. I leave that insanity up to others. |
| "November 22, 2018" "Prompt: "Sitting down together and sharing what you have is the greatest expression of love." With Thanksgiving in mind, write your thoughts about this." I would probably have to agree. I will point out that Jesus said that the greatest expression of love was for a person to lay down their life for their friends. So all in all I believe the greatest expression of love is sacrifice. Love gives of its means and I believe that is exactly what the prompt is saying, is it not? Sharing your time and your food with others is indeed a great expression of love. Unfortunately the "love" that many feel and express today and throughout the holidays is artificial. Real love would be expressed all year long. As a preacher I try to express my love for others not so much in words but in my actions. People aren't stupid. They can spot a fraud from a mile away. I try to be genuine with people. One of my best friends here is a man that I sit at the dinner table with each day. When we first met I did not know his name. Somebody called him "Festus" once because he watched the television show "Gunsmoke" faithfully. I was trying to make conversation with him so I said "How are you doing today Festus?" He answered "I'm doing okay. How are you Hypocrite?" He assumed that since I am the chaplain that I was a hypocrite! He has since changed his mind and we have become good friends. He has watched my behavior and determined that although I fall short of God's righteousness I am indeed a sincere, loving person who does my best to treat others the way I would want them to treat me. I mentioned the incident in which he had called me a hypocrite to him awhile back. He looked at me and smiled and said "You proved me wrong." Love does not go around beating its chest trying to draw attention to itself. Love puts the interests of others ahead of itself. There will be a lot of false love spread today as many will go out of their way to do charitable deeds. However the rest of the year those same people will ignore the problems of others and in many cases cause those problems! Love is the same every day, not just from Thanksgiving through Christmas!Don't be hypocrites! |
| "November 21, 2018" Prompt: "If you were offered a lucrative job but it meant a close friend of yours would not receive his or hers would you still take the job? Is friendship or financial gain more important?" I would probably not take the job but then most of my friends would encourage me to take it regardless. My friends all know that I struggle to make ends meet and they would want me in a better situation, even if it meant one of them would not get a job. I think friendship is about putting the needs of others ahead of your own. So while I would likely turn down the job my friends would encourage me to take it. "Prompt: What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?"That would probably be candied yams. My mom never cooked them when I was young because she didn't think they would be eaten so I didn't "discover" them until later in life. However I love them! My brother likes them too so they would have been eaten! Image #2118746 over display limit. -?- Image #2147967 over display limit. -?- |
| "November 20, 2018" Image #1971183 over display limit. -?- Image #1997652 over display limit. -?- Image #1971183 over display limit. -?- "Prompt: Peripheral Vision--In what ways do you think your peripheral vision is important? Has what you’ve seen through your peripheral vision ever helped you? Have you ever used your peripheral vision for poem or story writing ideas?" I've never really used peripheral vision for any of my story ideas but I believe peripheral vision is very important. When one is driving peripheral vision can be the thing that avoids a crash. I also find peripheral vision important since I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. My PTSD is not extremely pronounced like some but I still am easily spooked. Having good peripheral vision keeps me from being approached undetected.If I don't see somebody coming my reaction could easily be one of extreme shock. However I usually see whatever is around me and avoid a problem. So peripheral vision is very important. Image #1997652 over display limit. -?- Prompt: When you drop any new idea in the pond of the world, you get a ripple effect. You have to be aware that you will be creating a cascade of change. Joel A. Barker Write about the ripple effect in relation to any subject you like. I wish there was more of a ripple effect in regards to Jesus Christ. The sad thing is that many people will stand and tell me that they firmly believe that everything the Holy Bible says is true yet they refuse to become Christians. They say they are having too much fun living the life they are living. Some say they will become Christians when they get their lives straightened up. They don't seem to realize that Jesus straightens up lives! They will never be good enough on their own merit! People wake up and see that Jesus is Lord. Declare Him Lord of your life and begin a ripple effect of your own! Image #2098718 over display limit. -?- Image #2118746 over display limit. -?- Image #2147967 over display limit. -?- |
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