J-Sin

Oh the Gentlemen...

this is seriously every bit as hilarious as my wife said it was. especially on repeat views. Basically this is about the fact that the Speaker of the House exempted American Samoa from the minimum wage hike. Why? Oh maybe it's because her two biggest donors in her district have workers from there. Oops. The Republicans try to nail Rep. Barney Frank about it and he just hilariously interrupts and busts on them for not doing anything but trying to stir up trouble.

"The answer is as follows, he asks the Gentlemen on his side who controls the debate time to yield him time, he may then with that time, make the question, the other way the Gentlemen could find out, is by reading the bill, read the bill and it will tell you."

"Comments on the past behavior of the Speaker might be interesting but they are not points of order..."

Okay so Congress CAN be as interesting as the House of Commons...though rarely.

Posted by J-Sin at 09:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So I took this religious quiz to see sort of where I fall. I think it's somewhat spot-on...what do you think??? There's a "church", near me, maybe I should go find my spiritual self? My previous experiences with church (all Christian) has been piss poor and I'm turned off my most organized religions so I don't know if participating in one would be helpful. I'm sure there's plenty of great teachings in the Bible, Koran, and other religious texts but I don't know that I really want to study any since I don't take any of them quite literally but more as a moral compass/general guide type of thing. But hey, I am old, maybe I should see if it sticks?...

# Unitarian Universalism A liberal and diverse religious organization comprised of mostly atheists (or non-theists), agnostics, Humanists, liberal Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Neopagans, etc. Belief in Deity: Very diverse beliefs - Unitarian Universalists welcome all deity beliefs as well as nontheistic beliefs. Some congregations are formed for those who share a common belief, e.g. Christianity.
# Incarnations: Very diverse beliefs, including belief in no incarnations, or that all are the embodiment of God. Some believe Christ is God's Son, or not Son but "Wayshower."
# Origins of universe/life: Diverse beliefs, but most believe in the Bible as symbolic and that natural processes account for origins.
# After death: Diverse beliefs, but most believe that heaven and hell are not places, but are symbolic. Some believe heaven and hell are states of consciousness either in life or continuing after death; some believe in reincarnation; some believe that afterlife is nonexistent or not known or not important, as actions in life are all that matter.
# Why evil? Diverse beliefs. Some believe wrong is committed when people distance themselves from God. Some believe in “karma,” that what goes around comes around. Some believe wrongdoing is a matter of human nature, psychology, sociology, etc.
# Salvation: Some believe in salvation through faith in God and Jesus Christ, along with doing good works and doing no harm to others. Many believe all will be saved, as God is good and forgiving. Some believe in reincarnation and the necessity to eliminate personal greed or to learn all of life’s lessons before achieving enlightenment or salvation. For some, the concepts of salvation or enlightenment are irrelevant or disbelieved.
# Undeserved suffering: Diverse beliefs. It would be a rare Unitarian Universalists that believes that a literal Satan causes suffering. Some believe suffering is part of God’s plan, will, or design even if we don’t immediately understand it. Some don’t believe in any spiritual reasons for suffering, and most take a humanistic approach to helping those in need.
# Contemporary Issues: The Unitarian Universalist Association’s stance is to protect the personal right to choose abortion. Other contemporary views include working for equality for homosexuals, gender equality, a secular approach to divorce and remarriage, working to end poverty, promoting peace and non-violence, and environmental protection.

Posted by J-Sin at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm stoked that The Protector (aka Tom Yum Goong) is finally coming out in America. I've been waiting for this movie ever since I first saw the preview.

I haven't posted in almost a month because frankly I'm too busy. Between moving, updating Smother, my new job's responsibilities, and my family I'm pretty tied down every moment of every day. This weekend I've been cleaning house and getting things packed up for our move. As luck will have it, our next door neighbor moved and sold his house for some twenty thousand more than we were going to ask for. I won't say that our townhouse is better, but it has a bigger deck, a hot tub, and it's an end unit and I'd be MORE than satisified getting exactly what he got too. I'm pretty excited to move into our new home--but they still haven't broken ground yet! It's crazy how fast they can build homes these days. Of course a lot of the big main pieces are already cut out to some extent but still...They're building a couple of houses across the street from where our house will go up and in two weeks, it's crazy how fast they went from foundation to frame to weatherproofing.

So the holidays were a blast, my brother-in-law came home from South Korea and I took the week and a half between Christmas and New Year off. A welcome break though I was slaughtered with a nasty cold. So bad, that even I wanted to go to the doctor. I got my anti-biotic and am doing much better now. Luckily my son didn't seem to really get too sick though he definitely had a bit of a cold there for a while.

Speaking of my son, he's now standing up with the help of the stairs, a couch, a table, or anything he can hoist up from. He crawls CRAZY fast too. He wears you out quick as you chase him about, but I wouldn't have it any different.

The amount of television I'm watching these days has gone down quite a bit. But I did watch the Jet Li movie "Fearless" this morning while playing with my son and it was pretty good. Since I kept getting distracted I had to kick it old school and flip the audio from Mandarin to English. Reminded me of those awesome old school Bruce Lee flicks but the fighting was far superior.

While cleaning I found a whole slew of old baseball player autographs. Hall of Famers like Jim Palmer and Robin Yount and Frank Robinson. Then other Orioles faves like Chris Hoiles and Mike Flanagan and Rick Dempsey. Even Rafael Palmeiro signed something for me. I saved those as well as some Cal Ripken gear from when he broke Lou Gehrig's record back a few years. Cool stuff that I'll be able to share with my son one day.

I am old.

Posted by J-Sin at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)