God Loves All Prayers, Dammit

In high school, a large part of my involvement on the newspaper staff was copyediting and laying out the opinion section. In college, I went from writing for the opinion section, to opinion's assistant editor, to the opinion copyeditor. Now after that much involvement, I've quickly learned that I'm not cut out for writing OpEds. I'm too moderate for it, as in I can't yell "YES THIS IS THE WAY THINGS SHOULD BE." Maybe I just prefer the devil's advocate perspective. However, I've come to appreciate the fact that other people are capable of creating a strong opinion for one side of a story....even if their opinions and the reasoning behind them just comes off as ignorant.

Such frustrating opinions have come up with the perfect prayer, given live for the very first time. AKA the NASCAR invocation given at Nashville last weekend.



(Now bear with me, because I abhor going on long-winded rants involving religion or politics. But the responses on the interwebs have been just ridiculous, and urged me to rant.)

The first time I saw it, I thought it was funny as hell. Then I had to watch it a second time. And a third time. After the tenth or so time I watched it, I fell in love. THIS is how prayers should be given. From a public speaking perspective, it was confident, heartfelt, urged his audience to listen to him and listen well, and evoked emotions from the audience--for the vast majority, that initial emotion was surprise and laughter. From a logical standpoint, his audience could tell that he was honest about what he was saying in his invocation, and it was genuine, and it made you want to yell AMEN as loud as you could when he was finished.

Yet it amazes me that there are people out there who would consider this prayer to be "in poor taste." And at an even greater irony, it seems to be the devout Christians who have taken the greatest insult to injury. Because of course, those who pray the most MUST be experts at it, and would of course be the first to say, "Ur doin it wrong!!1!"

The people I love to hate are those who then spout off what prayers really should be like, saying, "One should be respectful, reverent, and remember who they are talking to." All I'm reading is bullshit, bullshit, and WTF? Might I ask who we are praying to again? I thought we were praying to our Creator and the man who died for our sins. Died for our sins the way some people have died to protect our freedom. I thought through prayer, we were striving to have to closest possible relationship with Him, without judgement. Yet what this poor preacher has put up with is judgement from fellow Christians about whether or not his prayer was worthy of God.


Not to mention that the insignificant amount of condemnation coming from the public hasn't had a leg to stand on to explain away their reasoning. One ESPN columnist (whose credibility hinged on the fact that his father was a minister) had attempted explaining the negative aspect, but even then, his explanation included the preacher trying to "market" himself, perpetuating the "hillbilly" image of NASCAR, and taking away attention from the race winner and the race itself.


1) "Marketing" a pastor/minister is about as effective as trying to convert an atheist into a Muslim. The fact the columnist even considered this tactic feels absurd, like he was grasping for that third point in his high school English paper.


2) As one reader responded to his article, "I couldn't care less about what the people who look at NASCAR as a Hillbilly sport think. Nothing is going to change their minds." Couldn't have said it better myself. Although, I'd also add that true NASCAR fans wouldn't quit watching the sport just because they found one invocation not up to their standards.


3) Race? What race? I don't think NASCAR's had a legitimately attention-capturing race since David Ragan finally won a Sprint Cup race. Before that would be Trevor Bayne's Daytona win. And while the road race in Wisconsin was entertaining, it was more annoying to see Ron Fellows lose out on an awesome victory and Jacques Villeneuve have so many run-ins on the track. Carl Edwards won another race, wooooooo....we would have made a bigger deal if a squirrel had run onto the track.


Puh-lease. How about praising the fact that he was a minister who preferred giving an invocation that people would actually listen to, instead of a ho-hum prayer read directly from a book (or if they were really daring, memorized it). And I can't exactly blame the women who wouldn't appreciate their man telling the entire viewing audience that he thought she was smoking hot, because some are incredibly sensitive about PDA.....but other than the forever-lame debate about whether calling a woman "hot" is insulting, I'd find this preacher's public display of love to be incredibly endearing. I could only hope that the others are just hiding behind the sensitivity to hide the fact that their husbands don't publicly pray for them. Hmmmm....something to think about. 

Maybe God will forgive you for believing that there is a "wrong" way to pray, especially when it was a prayer that was honest and came from the heart. In the meantime, maybe NASCAR should be more concerned about the real reason why fans are losing interest in the sport.

(Haha, the sentence "You don't like the way the minister prayed? Well God doesn't like the way you pray, either" just came to mind. I chuckled to myself.) :3

I Love My Friends

I love them because the day's barely half over, and they've already broken my Firefox. I had to switch to Chrome since Facebook via FF wouldn't show any birthday wishes. Screw the happy birthdays, I say congrats to the awesome people I call friends!! :p

I'm also very impressed how HCB was so quick with his birthday wish. Srsly.....first? Kinda scary.

I Must Be Psychotic

This will most likely turn into another quickie post, but whatevs. But seriously, I'm both comforted and weirded out at the same time.

To put it simply, I've never been more thankful now than I ever have been for getting to have lunch with HCB on a friends basis. I like to think they're not weird. I like to think that the way I go about asking for lunch isn't weird, and the way we go about it in general isn't either. I'm definitely not one to claim to know how he thinks, even if he likes to say that men are easy to figure out, him included. Pfft, he's dreaming.

But somehow, I'm more comfortable with the notion that I can look but not touch and simply hope that whatever I said wasn't a totally awkward come-on, than have a kid a year younger than me flirt with me and proceed to suggest lunch...when you can so totally tell in his mind "Holy crap a date!"

And not just any kid a year younger than me, a kid who is supposed to be on the CA staff next year with me. From what I was told, even the same building. And if John and this incoming hall director is smart, they won't put me with him, either. I don't think I could work with that.

Basically, I've become more comfortable with a guy that honestly couldn't give a shit, yet I have to force a grin when this kid flirts with me. Hell, I'm more comfortable when my old neighbor (older than HCB, mind you) decides to flirt with me for shits and giggles, and he's fucking married. I want to be able to enjoy the attention, especially since I know nothing will come of it, but still...

Ugh. Time to bother the shit out of HCB to get up here and have a friends-only lunch with me. I need some fucking intelligence back in my life.

Late Night Epiphanies

I've come to the conclusion that "It's bigger on the inside!" is the worst That's What She Said that people could try to concoct. Congratulations on the Doctor Who reference, give yourself a cookie. However, this is the last thing I'd want to discover. It implies that even though it may look like you've got a massive bulge there, once your pants drop she'll realize HOLY CRAP it's a baby carrot!

That's all. Pretty decent end to Canada Day. Only 3 more days till 'Merica Day!

Breakeven

The good news? I've found the motivation to go back to my Photoshop.

The bad news? Photoshop reminded me that this this tends to be the time when my OCD kicks in. Damn you, perfectionist reflex...

I'm determined to make this Canucks banner awesome, though. Psh.

Advertising At Its Best

Aaaaaaaaaaamg I wish I were in fucking Canada right now. And no, it isn't because HCB went back home. I swear I could watch Canadian television ALL DAY LONGGG...

Well, it's no secret that I love their advertising, or at least I love the commercials they choose to air. And there are some pretty awesome/hilarious commercials. Of course, I'm damn lucky if I can even find them online...but there are a few! Such as this one (no idea if it's particular to an area, but I'm sure it's international):



Theeeeeeen there's Molson, who never disappoints in making me giggle uncontrollably:



Mmmmmmhmmm, it just went there.

Then after the hockey games, if I'm positively lucky that night, I'll get to watch some random Canadian epicness. Of course it's totally out of my control as to what it is, but dude, even the news is fuckin' amazing. Because when it's a week before national elections....I mean, come on. Speaks for itself. Then the political stuff was followed by a visit to Chernobyl with some Canadians. Duuuuuude, now that was fascinating. :3

So tonight I'm watching, and I had the chance to look at the TV listings for whoever the hell was streaming everything online.....and holy crap my mind was blown. MTV has some show called 1 Girl 5 Gays? What the what?! Is this like their equivalent to 16 and Pregnant on the ridiculous scale? Jeeze.... >.>

They also have the Canadian equivalent to American Pickers. It's called (no shit) Canadian Pickers. Whaaaaaaaaat.....meh, it looks amusing but there's no topping the Iowa natives, HA! And, there's one that caught my attention that I kinda wanna see: The Dakota Sessions. Dakota?! Which Dakota? Well, it's actually just a tavern in Toronto (legit, they called it a tavern) that showcases musicians. Including Great Big Sea and Lady Antebellum. Woooo! Gonna watch for it on YouTube. Along with my goddamn Tide and Apple Auto Glass commercials. Grawr. >.>

Also, I got screwed by poking around Canada's CMT site. They have a friggin' show called Pick a Puppy. PICK A PUPPY. What sort of cruel torment is this to pick such an irresistible title!! D: Damn.....

Now they left on Hardcore Pawn, which isn't actually Canadian but....what the fuck. Sadly it's a drama-filled Pawn Stars basically, so Nascar took over. And THAT drama is a whole lot more hilarious. After tonight, Busch's ass is grassssssssssssss, and if all he gets is a lil fine.....then something's wrong with the system. Dude, they're picky as hell about speeding in pit road for the crew's safety, and Busch went and shoved Harvick's car with his own and plowed Harvick's into the pit wall? With pit crews and people all over the road? Fucking hell....but in all, Regan Smith FINALLY got a win that actually counts!! XD

For staying in Verm one last night, this has been pretty damn awesome. :3

Questioning Why I Reapplied For This Job

You know, I think I'm getting used to this second place thing I've got going. Ever since way back when I applied for this job of mine, I had put down Beede Hall as my top choice (Honors floor, yo) and Mickelson as my second. I got my second choice. Then all of this year it has been second this, second that...reapply for hall placement and I got my second choice (albeit, Beede's not too bad of a second choice).

Now tonight, John asked me who I would want for a co-CA next year. Didn't even have to think twice, I told him my current co Aris. Well fuck  me sideways, he wants to give Aris to Laurel because Laurel nearly didn't come back at the end of last semester, so he wants to give her a really good co. Then I told him that I didn't really want to be with Marcus 'cause I don't think I'd work well with him (His response: 'Well that's good to know'), and then I told him that I would not be co to Joe because, well, he happened to ask me out Friday night (His response: 'Ooooooooh'). We talked it over, and I don't really have a desire to be on an all-girls floor and he has two of the new/semi-new staff girls going on that floor. So basically I'm forced into a corner to work with a guy who I really won't get along with, which I can guarantee you from the start is going to be the case.

Seriously, I hope John takes at least a little pity in me and gives me top choice just this once...I told him my first choice had also been the Honors floor, but that I knew Laurel was going to get that too. And I really do hate to say it, but it really fucking sucks when the Honors floor already went to Laurel, and now I'm going to lose my co to her, too. What am I going to be left with then? Probably 4th floor again, with the perpetual angst that I won't have Aris as my co again when my heart was set on getting him again. It's a toxic combination.

I swear, I'm more stressed out from shit that has nothing to do with schoolwork and it's a bitch. I'm hoping HCB gets his ass in gear and picks a day for lunch or dinner or SOMETHING, I'm just saying. I need a way to wind down, either through doing absolutely nothing or reading or sleeping, I just don't know anymore....