I know that you have all been eagerly waiting for me to describe, in some capacity, my religious leanings. Well, wait no more, courtesy of netmouse and the Belief-O-Matic Quiz, I can tell you by percentages...

1. Theravada Buddhism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (97%)
3. Liberal Quakers (88%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (83%)
5. Secular Humanism (80%)
6. Neo-Pagan (79%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (78%)
8. New Thought (74%)
9. Scientology (74%)
10. Reform Judaism (72%)
11. Taoism (71%)
12. Nontheist (66%)
13. New Age (64%)
14. Sikhism (62%)
15. Hinduism (60%)
16. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (57%)
17. Jainism (45%)
18. Orthodox Quaker (41%)
19. Bahá'í Faith (39%)
20. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (34%)
21. Seventh Day Adventist (29%)
22. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (27%)
23. Eastern Orthodox (27%)
24. Roman Catholic (27%)
25. Islam (25%)
26. Orthodox Judaism (25%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (10%)

Tags: meme, religion
Current Location: Castle Bradaki
Current Mood: bouncy

As mentioned by others, there is a gathering at the home of the Bradaki on Friday, 8/8/08 starting at 7pm.

We will also be recording a long-overdue SMOScast so bring your questions,absurdity, and sense of humor. The last is mandatory, but the others would be fun too!

Oh, and there will be, at some point, a top secret audio project... I will surely have more information at a later date, but I am really excited about this thing...

Tags: life, smoscast
Current Mood: chipper

For those who haven't seen it, I am now something of a super hero! Thanks to matt_arnold for the hilarious send-up of my verbose self.

Tags: comics, funny
Current Mood: busy

ontd_political
A community for political news and open discussion.

neurotheology
Discussion and debate on the correlations between human physiology and religious belief.

allmoms
A community of mothers young and old, sharing advice and friendship.

I know, I know, I'm late to the party. Everybody who is anybody has already waxed angry, philosophical, or otherwise witty about Orson Scott Card's homophobia fire sale, so I'm certain to be piling on, but I have to point out one area where I think Mr. Card is 100% accurate: homosexual marriage should not exist.

Now, before the vicious attacks begin, allow me a moment to explain, Card says, in his hateful screed, that

There is no branch of government with the authority to redefine marriage. Marriage is older than government.

...and he is right. Flat out. Marriage is a church construct meant to solemnize the union between two people. In most Christian faiths, that union is between a man and a woman. End of story, full stop.

The question is, why are we allowing a church construct like marriage to have legal, government sanctioned standing? This is really the core of the problem. The Christians are saying, essentially, "we invented marriage, [untrue] and it is between a man and a woman, and these laws pervert our marriage", while rational humans are saying "homosexuals should have the same rights as heterosexuals". The fun part is, both parties are absolutely correct.

Now I'm a problem solver; it's what I do. So let me solve this intricate problem in just 4 steps:

1. Marriage is no longer recognized by the government. It is a church thing, let it stay that way.


2. Civil Union is now the government observed union between two persons (regardless of gender) for legal purposes. It affords all of the same rights and observes all of the same restrictions (save for that of gender specificity) that marriage used to, but it has NOTHING to do with a church. To be unionized, a couple need only apply at the courthouse, fill out the appropriate paperwork, and be done with it.


3. All currently married couples are grandfathered into civil unions. No muss, no fuss, just viola. Those currently married would see no difference at all, save for a new certificate in the mail.


4. Church "marriage" henceforth has no bearing on government "civil unions". One could be married without a union (but receive no government benefits). One could be unionized without marriage (and the church would not recognize it). Or one could get both (thereby receiving full benefit of both government and church recognition of the union).

The upsides? Well, gays get the same rights as straight folks, Christians and homophobes get to keep their marriage "clean" of "perversion". Further, it cleans up some other messy areas. Mormons want to have many wives? They are welcome to marry as often as they like, however, they can unionize with only one person. Do you wish to dissolve your joint public union but remain married? No problem, done and done.

The downsides? I haven't found one yet, nor has anyone to whom I have related this notion. But what say you? Why won't this work?

Where would I start to make this happen?

Tags: life, rant
Current Mood: aggravated

So wow, that was a weekend, eh?

A pretty solid gauge of the weekend is how far into the week it takes to recover; and by that measure I think it is fair to say that I will be recovering around September! Of course, we cheated a bit, and the weekend really began Thursday night when blazepoet and yakavenger swept into town amidst gleeful excitement and general cheerfulness.

Ger and I went home before it got too terribly late so that we could start the weekend-proper with SOME sleep under our belts.

On Friday, after taking care of some side-work in the morning, I went to MPCon entirely too late to set up, but just late enough to have some fun hanging out with all of the guys, played some games, ate tacos and drank energy drinks entirely too late at night, took a fantastically verbose release of feces*, then crashed at home around 6am on Saturday morning, in time to spend a little bit of cuddle time with Ger.


My brief nap over with, I shot back out to the LAN, packed up my stuff, and made my way to Con-Versation for the ConFusion ConCom meeting (that was a veritable cornucopia of random capitalization, wasn't it now. Tsk tsk, my English professor would be more than a little displeased with me). The meeting wasn't bad, although I was disappointed in its significant lateness, sparse attendance, and lack of general content; but any gathering of people I really enjoy spending time with is a win in my book, regardless as to whether or not any business actually got done. I call the meeting a win.

Meeting stuff over with, I shot back over to the Bradaki household for the recommencement of what would later be called Plaidicon 1. A small(ish) group of us made some sushi, had some conversation, I told some grossly inappropriate stories, we utterly abused sheryl67's ability to get a night's rest, then it was time for the evening to collapse in a giggly and exhausted heap in the basement on a crowded pile of mattresses for the evening's repose.

My mind-bogglingly limited amount of sleep made for a very relaxed, bleary eyed Sunday. Supreme thanks to blue_lucy and yakavenger for braving the morning sun to return with delicious Panera with which to ease our way back into the day. An abortive attempt at Rock Band turned into even more fun with much lounging around while, unbeknownst to us, earthenwood, blazepoet, and yakavenger brought back enough fruit to gorge a starved elephant (or the entirety of Plaidicon, as it turns out) and we had an absolutely delicious (and utterly impromptu) dinner with Josh, Kati, and Melanie rocking the fruit salad, Sheryl and I mixing up the sushi, and several others prepping up the random other leftovers dinner Saturday. The rest of the day was spent, for me at least, pretending to watch Beautiful Katamari whilst fading in and out of sleep (Kati pointed out that they could tell when I was asleep not by my snoring, but by the fact that I briefly stopped talking. I suppose it's probably cocky of me to think, then, that it is disappointing that I don't talk in my sleep, eh?) In no time at all, the "con" had ended, and it was time to go.

Knowing that when I left on Sunday night, I was saying goodbye to Josh and Kati for an indeterminate period of time was actually pretty hard. It is a fantastic thing when you just flat out click with people, and after spending the kind of time with them that we spent this weekend, it is safe to say that we click. Living nearly 500 miles from the place where I grew up, and therefore any sort of biological family, it's easy to feel kind of alone at times, but I truly don't have to, because I have an absolutely awesome adopted family in sheryl67 and rbradakis (and two little ones that I have all but adopted myself), atdt1991 and blue_lucy (despite the latter half's attempt to abandon us at summer's end), earthenwood (who I swear to try to freak out less.. honest! :P), ellalthea (love you baby), and so many of the rest of you that just happened to have alternate plans this weekend... and now I get to add to that one yakavenger and blazepoet (who live entirely too far away for fairness' sake).

Now, of course, the house feels a tad lonely during the day... and things feel a bit more mundane (yes, mundane, it happens to me sometimes)... but there are always other days. Good night, clan. See you all soon!

Tags: clan bradaki, life, plaidicon
Current Mood: lonely

craftygoths
Into arts and crafts? Don't think that bats and skulls are limited to the month of October? Here's your place!

hiimdaisy
Comics for "irrational mouth-breathers" by a fan of gaming, amongst other things.