It’s news to me!
This weekend I went to San Antonio with my Mom, Stepdad, Grandma and *gasp* girlfriend.

I’ve met a lady. Yes. I should have posted sooner, but now that she’s met the ‘fam’ I suppose all of the internet can know me and Tomie are dating.

Who’s Tomie? She’s a reporter for the Temple Telegram, so I have been, and will be driving up to Temple on some or most weekends. Scary!

Tomie has noticed and categorized many of my character flaws. One of which I shall report to you now.

Apparently, I say “sure” a lot. It can mean “yes”, “maybe,” sarcastically “no” or several other things.

San Antonio was great though. I saw the “river walk” for the first time. For anyone who hasn’t been. Go. It’s awesome. I’ll include a Wikipedia link for good measure.

That’s all for now. For the people who’ve been checking the site lately, to no avail, I apologize for my laziness.

More soon.

Well.  Tomorrow I will take the plunge and drive with Mr. Stocks to the great state of Mississippi.

The drive will be long and horrible, but I will endure.

Until next year, good night and good luck.

Below is an image that I’ve constructed in order to help categorize different types of atheists “labels”.

Once some good conversation gets started, we’ll talk about the significance of showing just how broad a label we are dealing with could possibly be.

It’s fun to look back on some of the psychotic quirks of your childhood. Remember True Love Waits?

For those of you who weren’t lucky enough to grow up in the very buckle of the bible belt, you may not remember TWL or the “Silver Ring Thing”. Both of these programs aim to get kids hopped up on Jesus at exciting rock-and-roll events and then convince them to take a virginity pledge.

It’s like signing a contract when you’re high. Teenage hormones beat guilt laden promises to Jesus, however.
Recent studies found that pledgers are more likely to engage in oral and anal intercourse and equally likely to get STDs as non-pledgers. The only effect found is that pledgers did prolong premarital sex for up to a year longer than non-pledgers, but they were more likely to forget to use contraceptives when they did begin having vaginal intercourse.
True Love Waits is just one part of a larger beast known as Abstinence Only Sexual Education.
A program that:

• Has as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
• Teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school-age children;
• Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems;
• Teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of sexual activity;
• Teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
• Teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society;
• Teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increase vulnerability to sexual advances, and
• Teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity.

Wikipedia says, “In 2007, a study ordered by Congress found that middle school students who took part in abstinence-only sex education programs were just as likely to have sex in their teenage years as those who did not.”

This program doesn’t actually make kids less likely to abstain from sex, but it does purposefully avoid teaching kids about contraceptives. Anyone else frustrated? Joycelyn Elders is on this video.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for religious pseudo-science being taught instead of cold, hard facts. But shouldn’t it at least get positive results?

My friends torture me. It’s well established. Case in point, I’ve been directed by one of my “friends” this Christian Answers website. I started with their movie review of Stardust. I learned that my favorite movie of the year (Stardust) is VERY morally offensive. News to me!

All of this served to direct me to their links on creationism. I felt a sort of morbid curiosity as I clicked: How did animals get from the Ark to isolated places, such as Australia?

The article starts… STARTS by reaffirming that the Bible quite definitively describes a watery global cataclysm. After reading the article, I can only guess this was to set a tone of “belief” in their readers.

I won’t focus too much on their description on how all those species got onto the ark to begin with. (If there was a flood, maybe things were a lot different beforehand).

They admit that “the patterns of post-flood animal migration present some problems and research challenges for the biblical creation model.” They do go onto speculate how the koalas, kangaroos, and platypus might have made their way from modern-day Iraq to Australia.

They reason that an ice-age might have happened after the flood making an Australasian land bridge for the animals to get back.

Then there’s the problem of the Australian koala’s specialized diet.  How did they eat on their way back.

“A need for unique or special conditions to survive may be a result of specialization, a downhill change in some populations. That is, it may result from a loss in genetic information, from thinning out of the gene pool or by degenerative mutation.”

Oh, really.  I think you guys are onto something.  It’s called evolution!  Scroll up.  Read that line again.  This is an incredible act of tap dancing that kept them from saying this outright: “they evolved to eat only eucalypt leaves after they got back to Australia.”

It’s a sad day in creation science friends.

Secondhand Lands – Gear

This post is a collaborative post between myself, Patrick Rogers, and Bobby Thurman which is an open discussion about Secondhand Land’s item system.

Secondhand Lands is not WoW. Orcs do not battle against manly looking elves while wearing huge shoulder pads that make them look like clowns. Players will not adhere to a nightly guild-enforced raid calender.

Specifically, gear will not be “greater than all”. A skilled player with with well-chosen, synergistic skills will beat a worse player with “strictly better gear” 9 times out of 10.

The Rundown:

There are 5 gear slots: Eyes, Head, Neck, Back, and Feet.

The largest contributions to your character will be from your Back, Head and Feet armor.

These pieces will all add to your physical resistance score in varying degrees. Three sample Back pieces are as follows:

Red Magic Cape: Sheep favored item that gives 10 physical resistance and lets you jump 5% higher.

Really Heavy Plate: Gives a whopping 20 physical resistance. Sheep with less than 50 strength and constitution will move a reduced movement speed (it’s really heavy).

Sheepskin pelt: PvP piece favored by wolves and “black sheep”, 5 physical resistance that grants a bonus 2% damage versus sheep.

Feet and Head slots work similarly, trading off more or less physical resistance for more or less bonus to their skills and special abilities. Expect head pieces that increase head butt and bite damage. Expect boots that make your sprint and hoof slam attacks better.

Neck and Eye pieces are more rare, and give stranger, more esoteric effects.

Examples of eye pieces include a monocle that increases stealth detection and purely ornamental masks and sunshades.

Neck pieces could work as follows:

Spiked Collar gives wolves a bonus to their growl spellpower.

Blingin’ Gold Necklace: Gives a 2% bonus to all healing done. Wearer occasionally says “My mama didn’t raise fool.”

Each piece of gear, in short, should feel ‘different’ from another piece.

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Proof that I have no ethics:

I’ve posted the following link longhand, as clear proof that the world has gone completely nuts.

http://3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097.org/

God help us all.

It has been recently suggested that people who are autistic or have Asperger’s Syndrome may be more likely to be atheists or agnostic.

Asperger’s Syndrom (AS) is a fancy psychology term for nerd or geek. This may be a simplification of terms, but it’s still true. One of the key factors leading to AS may be a kind of mind-blindess.

Take a survey now to find out where you fit on the “autism spectrum”. link:

One explanation for why people with AS are less likely to be religious is as follows:

People with AS have more trouble figuring what’s in other people’s minds. This means they are less likely to believe in a incorporeal intellect (believe in a God or gods).

The opposite of an autistic is called a “neurotypical” which is another fancy term for “muggle” or normal person. Muggles have a much easier time imagining a God because they place a heightened amount of interest in other people and have less interest in science, math and computer programming.

Continued here:

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Have a seat boys and girls, and get ready for the play-by-play. The unlikely final showdown between Optimus and Prime and Albus Dumbledore here on Yaxamie.com!

Let’s take a closer look at each of our contestants:

Optimus Prime is the heroic robot commander of the autobots, who have sworn to protect human life. At one moment he’s a semi truck that pulls an entire trailer full of explosive goodies. The next moment he’s a giant robot with laser rifle and an access to more weaponry than you’re typical military submarine. Within his chest he carries a talisman of leadership, the Creation Matrix.

Albus Dumbledore is a old-ass wizard who ranks a grumpy prostate an equal annoyance to dragons, ogres, and incorporeal nasties alike. Dumbledoor has his choice of the most powerful wands and spells of any of the Order of Merlin could possess. He has exceptional control of fire and can summon his deadly phoenix Fawkes to his aid.

Following is an interview with fan-boy Otto and fan-girl Helga.

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