now here is shocking news.. goes to show just how *insert expletive* up this world is (i dont think this can truly be expressed in normal words is why):
MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was voted Russia's third most popular historical figure in a nationwide poll that ended on Sunday, despite the famine and purges that marked his rule.
The "Name of Russia" contest run by Rossiya state television channel over more than six months closed on Sunday night with a final vote via the Internet and mobile phones. It drew more than 50 million votes in a nation of 143 million.
Millions of Soviet citizens perished from famine during forced collectivisation, were executed as "enemies of the people" or died in Gulag hard labour camps during Stalin's rule which lasted for almost 30 years until his death in 1953.
"We now have to think very seriously, why the nation chooses to put Josef Vissarionovich Stalin in third place," prominent actor and film director Nikita Mikhalkov, one of the contest's judges, said after the results of the vote flashed on a screen.
"We may find ourselves in a situation where absolute power and voluntarism that ignores people's opinions may prevail in our country, if a fairly large part of the nation wants it."
[...]
"The younger generation is fed with myths about Stalin. It knows nothing about the millions who died in Gulag camps but well knows he was a strong leader who defeated (Nazi) Germany," human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov told Reuters.
He said a whiff of Stalinism was felt in Russia's harsh tone with the West which has accused Moscow of backtracking on democratic reforms and keeping a tight lid on dissent.
"Again, foreign enemies are to blame for all internal problems, so you need to rule with an iron fist -- it's a purely Stalinist method."
Stalin's nostalgic supporters like to repeat that he defeated Nazi Germany, industrialised the Soviet Union and achieved total literacy across a backward peasant nation.
"Of course, there were also dark pages...and coming along with his genius there were also destructive moments, but in general he is remembered mostly as a great leader," Viktor Ilyukhin, a leading member of the Communist party, told Reuters.
"We have been living under capitalism for 20 years now and so what? We are now a rank-and-file country, no longer a superpower. Our voice is weak both in economics and politics, and key decisions are sometimes taken without us."
i ask, truly truly, when we can name the greatest mass murderer of ALL time, the third most popular russian.. we are in trouble. i guess those 30 million lives were worth what again? oh yeah, "just a dark page, a destructive moment".. oh goodness me. Lord save us.
and now with the US's most pro-abortion candidate in history (aka obama) being elected into the white house.. oh goodness goodness me..
and i will soon post a few of my recently discoveries on the end times (they were there all along, i just didnt have that big an interest in researching it up till last week, after someone asked me and i really didnt know what to answer)
in summary, given matt24, there is just no way a pre-tribulation rapture can occur
bad news today. yes, its going to be hard for some of you to swallow this, especially if you are joelie.. but today marks a new day in a new reign of terror.. yes, i once again, have shown dominance in bowling. and it seems joelie has been infected with (or has received the transfer of) the one-pin of death syndrome, where you bowl a great shot, but there is always one pin, one defiant pin sticking up there, like a middle finger, cursing out your name. that used to be my fate.. and today i saw a few of those myself, but it was mostly joelie that was suffering. poor lad. but baron had quite a good showing! well, it was indeed on occasion of his birthday that we went bowling, and his idea too. happy birthday, baron! so the final tally was, first game went to joelie, next two to me, next to baron, and the final game to me. but, my reign of terror is not just in terms of dominance numerically, ie, in number of victories and humiliating defeats over the enemy, oh nonono... today saw a new record (for us).. yes, i officially now hold the high score between the three of us, a whopping 184! (hey, thats a lot for us rookies) i couldve hit past 200 but i screwed up in the last frame.. gah!
in other news, i got myself a sweet, sweet chess set, all glass (frosty for white, clear for black) new for $5!! (yes, FIVE DOLARES!) so now, we have a new battlefield, me and clark kent (aka joelie cannoli) and our inaugural day saw him just cream me 4 games to nil. gah! i just for some reason am incapable of focus, gah double gah! so i kept loosing my queen, but by the fourth game, i almost had him but then, one stupid move on my behalf, and *poof* there goes the queen again, and the game with it.. argh! so now we have a game going thats lasting in the hours (mostly due to distractions and such..) we began while waiting for baron to arrive so we could go bowl and tried to continue when we got back.. its still unfinished.. joel announced a forfeit, cuz i was taking so long on one move (hey, there were lots of distractions!) but i refused to accept his resignation.. and we continued for a bit before we started watching 24 (season 4) and baron was farting like crazy (he does that when he gets excited.. yeah, i know.. i know.. dont feed him buffalo meat either, i hear thats a deadly combo). in any case, it was truly a fun day.. i hope baron enjoyed it too, i know i did! (poor joel tho, im really sorry for the poor guy.. all he has left is chess, and once i learn how to focus, he wont even have that! but, like i say, he still is taller and handsomer, and the tallness nobody can take away, unless, like i also told him, he saws off his legs.. but im guessing he wont want to do that anytime soon.. tho he did say that if he was wheelchair bound, he would still beat me at racing.. hahah.. i hope it doesnt come to that.. but.. BRING IT ON SUCKA!!!!!!)
and yes, im tagging this post as "history", due to the historic nature of all that went down
i really like this vid, and minute 3:39 is my favorite moment
Eliot was born with an undeveloped lung, a heart with a hole in it and DNA that placed faulty information into each and every cell of his body. However, that could not stop the living God from proclaiming Himself through this boy who never uttered a word.
i have a big one coming, but first, here is a verse i found doing some research on the end times:
"Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather."
matthew 24:28
this is in reference to the people who will be running to go to where others yell "look!! there he is!!" of the messiah's return, since when He does return, everyone will see Him at once (see verse 27).. full passage:
"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
matthew 24:26-28
sort of reminds me of those catholics who go on pilgrimage to go see "the virgin mary".. wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather
yes, its a turkey, stuffed with a duck that was stuffed with a chicken, its a turducken.. have you ever even heard of such a thing??
also of note:
The largest recorded nested bird roast is 17 birds, attributed to a royal feast in France in the early 19th century (originally called a Rôti Sans Pareil, or "Roast without equal") - a bustard stuffed with a turkey, a goose, a pheasant, a chicken, a duck, a guinea fowl, a teal, a woodcock, a partridge, a plover, a lapwing, a quail, a thrush, a lark, an Ortolan Bunting and a Garden Warbler. The final bird is small enough that it can be stuffed with a single olive; it also suggests that, unlike modern multi-bird roasts, there was no stuffing or other packing placed in between the birds. This dish probably could not be legally recreated in the modern era as many of the listed birds are now protected species.
i havent blogged this, given the internet blackout, courtesy of our ISP, but last saturday we went with guiyyi and his lovely wife bibis to medieval times!!!! (courtesy bibis' job's social club) and maaaan, if youve never been, its just incredible fun!! its like going to the theater, but they feed you, and you get to yell and cheer (and boo), and eat with your hands! haha, it was so awesome. however, while their tagline is "dinner and a show", we concluded that it should actually called "snack and a show", as the amount of food (a chicken leg, one rib (though willy the jay got two for some reason), one half oven roast potato, and a mc donald's style hot apple pie, oh, and ONE glass of pepsi or water--your choice) was definitely not enough to be a filling dinner. the chicken was good, i liked the potato, (but bibis didnt) and the rib i didnt like (but i think the, aptly named, castle family did like the ribs). in any case, the whole experience was just plain amazing. you have real, live jousting and sword fighting, as well as other medieval games, involving horses no less!! as well as having a storyline to keep you interested in whats going on.. plus, each section has a knight assigned to it, so you get to cheer him on, and of course, boo the other knights like crazy.. (as i made quite sure to do!) it was just awesome. and so, i do highly recommend going if you can afford it, it was just so much fun, and i had always wanted to since i heard about it the first time
so, to bibis and guiyyi, thankyou milady and milord, for the courteous invitation, and i hope you are enjoying the sun in the land of colombia, (as we had our first winter snowstorm today (i think snow is awesome too, by the way))
merry CHRISTmas everyone!! enjoy the true story of the nativity:
The story of Christ's birth has been passed down from generation to generation. As time has passed, in efforts to relay the story to others, man has perhaps taken some creative license with the events of the Nativity. Though we are unsure of many elements surrounding Jesus' birth, we do know this: Two thousand years ago, a Savior was born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem.
ok.. so the absence was due to our ISP deciding to block us for exceeding our bandwidth by more than double (blame my wife.. haha.. not throttling her p2p) but now we're back.. hooray!
and in the free time, i was working on the movie script ideas i have.. which are looking really interesting.. im really excited to see how they turn out. and maybe i might even be able to see these come to fruition some day
oh, and i wanted to officially share with everyone my newly fleshed out policy (no pun intended), its one that ive had for a long time, but never really put it into a nice concise phrase. its about looking at women, and "exposed skin". so here it is:
if you cant see it, dont touch it
if you cant touch it, dont see it
it plays out a little like this. theres a girl wearing a miniskirt, so you say "nice, attractive!" and your eyes draw immediately there. youre alive, you have eyes, and you are male. its normal. BUT, the first one's free (thats another one that i use), and that second look is not. the point is that if you wouldnt be allowed to touch that part of a girl, you shouldnt be looking at it, and if that part is covered, you shouldnt be touching it. pretty easy, straight forward policy, dont you think? wanna look at that girl in the miniskirt? well, ask yourself, "would i be allowed to touch it?" if no, then just look away at something else. like the wall.
im tagging this one with "Holy Spirit".. because its His work in us that lets us know what we are allowed to see in touch in the first place.
hah, strange, this was in a news article (ok i guess "opinions" article) on the yahoo main page.. its about dressing for cold weather, but it ended with this paragraph:
The word comfortable did not originally refer to being contented. Its Latin root, confortare, means to strengthen. Hence its use in theology: The Holy Spirit is Comforter; not to make us comfy, but to make us strong. This then is our task. We may not be warm but we are indeed comforted; we are strong and we are looking for the sweaters.
how random, and nice! whether i think the author is christian or not, i think its nice that the Holy Spirit, whose job by the way is to convict us (let us know) of our sins, should be mentioned in a secular news source! for the most random subject, too!
so, for all you guys thinking of getting memory foam anything (mattress or pillow).. my wife just bought a memory foam mattress topper (waaay too expensive if you ask me) because, well we have two beds in this home: one, which is awesome, and super comfy, and was the bed that joelie's aunt and uncle gave me when i first moved in here (which joelie and his dad moved in, and helped set up for me) its amazing. but, its small, and we dont fit well on it. the other bed, is the one that came with the apartment, which is big enough for the both of us, (me and my wife, not me and joelie, in case there are some confused souls out there) but.. man, i hate it. its super stiff, and i think the coils poke my poor back when i sleep on it, so many a morning i wake up with a sore, or downright pained, back. so my lovely wife went out and got a memory foam mattress topper (did i mention that i think it was too expensive?) so that we could sleep on the big bed and i could be comfy.
and here is the reason for the post. DANG does that mattress ever STINK! it smells like ammonia, and that is one thing you do not want to have your face smothered into for sleep. and no, the ammonia smell doesnt knock you out, it just gives you a terrible headache. which doesnt let you sleep. sooo, the point of this post? memory foam mattress? comfy, but stinky..
and no, thats not the final judgment. i went online and tried to find if there is a solution to this, (my wife did so too, and found that spraying febreeze on it was a good option.. i was a bit wary of this, since i dont know how the chemicals in both would react.. last thing i want is a hole in this (really expensive) mattress, or a chemical fire or something. she did it anyways. and nothing happened. for better or for worse, in sickness-- oh wait.
so yeah, apparently, its known that memory foam stinks, and its also apparently solved by just letting it air out a few days..
What is Memory Foam?
Memory foam is a common name for visco elastic foam. It has a fascinating history: it was initially developed by NASA for the space programme to help shield astronauts from high G forces. It is now used for bedding materials such as mattresses, pillows and mattress pads.
[...]
For all its advantages, memory foam isn't perfect. One of its disadvantages is that when new it does give off a distinctly unpleasant chemical smell. This chemical release is known as off-gassing.
[...]
Apparently it was this smell that kept memory foam "earthbound". Visco-elastic foam was initally designed for the NASA space programme to cushion astronauts from the effects of acceleration and is still often called space foam.
Unfortunately the off-gassing smell was enough to scupper this plan. In a well-aired bedroom, the smell of memory foam might dissipate quickly and become negligible. But in a small cabin with recycled air it would be a distinct problem.
Unlike us, the astronauts could hardly open a window!
But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."
thanks to joelie for this tip, if you havent heard of this yet, theres a doll on storeshelves that says, well, hear for yourselves, and then ill tell you what everyone says it is saying:
awesome rap songs with better theology than hillsong (what is their theology?), courtesy of shai linne.. actually, better theology than even 90% of baptist churches.. (not to mention all the others)
even if you dont like rap/hip hop (*cough*bahb*cough*), these songs are just so chock full of just, really really good theology, its worth listening to these things in full, over and over.. and shai linne is just one, theres also apparently the following other rappers (that i havent checked out yet): trip lee, lecrae, tedashii
check em out and let me know what you think
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