you should read the post below if you haven’t yet… i am just adding this because i saw it on someone’s site, and filled it out just because all i had to type in was my name… anyway, I thought it was really funny… so… i’m postng it here.

DISCLAIMER: The very easily offended may be offended by portions of this post. It is not my intent to offend you, so, sorry if it does. But, you have been warned.

So, the other day I said I was going to write a post… and that said post would be something that probably most everyone who reads the site would not agree with me on. There is one person who has been complaining at me about how I haven’t made said post yet… so I am here writing it now. That’s right, my friend, THIS is that post.

Before I begin discussing that which I really want to post about, I want to preface this with a bit of what my purpose in posting this is. And that is this: I like to have solid reasons behind things. I like debates and such, discussion with people with whom I disagree, etc. It helps to determine what you really believe and why you believe it. As an easily understood example, take the matter of, say, murder. Murder is a sin. Why is murder a sin? The answer to that question is easily understood, in the horrible outcomes of it, etc. I do not believe murder is a sin solely because that is what I interpret the bible to mean when I read “Thou shall not kill.” Note that this could also be interpreted to mean that it is a sin to kill at all, including in such things such as war, which, I do not think the Bible teaches. So please do not soley quote bible verses in response to this… you can quote them, and you should quote them, but please be able to support your view with actual reasons, because honestly, I already know the bible verses you are going to quote (for the most part, at least) and I do not feel that they mean what you feel that they mean.

This post is on the matter of cursing. Cussing. Swearing. Whatever you want to call it. Is it wrong? Why or why not? If it is wrong, how big of a deal is it? Are you a horrible Christian if you swear?

One site that I went to a few days ago, and which was in fact a partial part of the inspiration for this post, because I couldn’t believe someone actually wrote something so stupid, said that they couldn’t even see a reason to curse, because “there is a substitute for every curse word there is.” Yes, it’s true, there are substitutes, and Christians use them all the time, guilt-free. But just think about that for a second. These are substitutes. Please establish for me the difference between fricking and fucking which causes the first to be perfectly acceptable and the latter to be sin. How about crap and shit? Dang and damn? Butt and ass? I really am curious to know the answer to this question, if anyone could please enlighten me. The author of the site I mentioned earlier conceded hat the meanings of said “curse words” were typically stronger emotion, but that they otherwise meant the same thing.

How about words that USED to be considered curse words, but now are not, at least not by the average person. These words include “suck”, “piss”, and even the now acceptable for Christian use “crap”. So at what point did it STOP being a sin to use these words, and at what point will other words cease to be unacceptable? Who decides this said point?

Onto a point that I touched on earlier. What actually makes a swear word a bad thing to say? I can say that premarital sex is wrong, because I can see the negative effects it has, and I could list off many reasons why. I can do the same with lieing, or with stealing, or with murdering, etc. I cannot do that with cursing. I do not know what negative effects cursing has. You could argue that cursing can be hurtful to a person, such as if someone were to say “fuck you”, but this is not the word that is the sin, but rather the attitude of hate in the person who has said it. Calling a driver who cuts you off a moron is no better then calling him a fucking idiot. I guarentee that your heart is the same in both instances. So what negative effects does it have? Does it offend you? I find that the only people it really offends are Christians. Why does it offend you? Can you give me legitimate reasons?

Another argument that I often hear, though it is not really support for swearing being a sin, but rather a discouragement from swearing, is that swearing makes you sound like an idiot. This is a statement that can be true, but I also think that sometimes someone could look like an idiot by not swearing. Come on, you know you’ve seen a movie with the words edited and it sounds ridiculously stupid without the proper word. You know you’ve seen some kind of Christian production where it sounded real cheesy. Swearing makes you sound dumb if you don’t understand how to properly use the English language. If every other word out of your mouth is a swear word, then yeah, you’re going to sound like an idiot. Swear words really aren’t designed to be used all the time. They carry with them connotations of extreme emotion, etc. Swear words are very strong words. Strong words should be used reservedly.

I could probably write more on this, but it is getting late and so since I have finished my train of thought I am going to stop. It’s already fairly long, anyway. Please respond to this, tell me what you really think. I am not above changing my mind on this view if someone were to display to me a legitimate reason why swearing is a sin. But for those of you who may worry about this, I don’t really swear anyway. On occasion, yes, but certainly not on a regular basis. I don’t have the need for it that much, and due to my conditioning of not swearing, I most often find myself using those substitutes. And please, speaking of that, don’t use substitutes if you think swearing is a sin. Because if it’s a sin to swear, it’s a sin to use a word that means the exact same thing too.

Godspeed.

hey everybody!

my previous post is now irrelevant. i write this post from my new powerbook. i did not realize that i would be getting this so soon, but, i wanted to go to the apple store to look around and such… and so we did, and my parents ended up going ahead and getting me one. as to what i got, i ended up getting the 15″ powerbook w/ combo drive (not superdrive; how sad ;)).

so yeah… needless to say i am extremely happy with it and am having a good time learning the mac os which is very cool but i am quite unfamiliar with.

anyway, that is all i have to say for now… i will probably write more later.

godspeed.

before you continue reading the rest of this post… you should know it
is not the post i promised in my last post… though that is still
coming.

so today i just found out that instead of driving out to CA, my dad has
found a rental car company from which i will be able to rent a car
while out there.  so now i will be flying out.  now, this
produced a problem where the area of a computer is concerned… because
i would have to have it shipped to me, however, i also learned today
that I will be getting a laptop.  and so, i think i can talk my
dad into a low end powerbook, or a high-end ibook, though he says h
could get an ibm laptop for like $800.  i don’t really know what
kind of features or whatever would be on it though.

anyway, so my question to you out there who read this is this: given
the option, would you go for a 12.2″ screen powerbook, or a 14″ screen
ibook?

at the moment i’m thinking the powerbook.. but.. i really despise small screens 😉

so i had a complaint about colors so i changed them real fast just a
moment ago.  i deem them acceptable until such time as my other
site is ready.  speaking of which, the part of my site which is my
blog (which is on the same server but isn’t really a part of the site
elliot and i are working on) is actually fully functional right
now.  however, the design isn’t done… i have to do all the css
stuff….  but… it might be up in a week or so, depending on
when i get motivated.

i do however feel somewhat motivated to write a post about
something…  and it is something probably most everyone who reads
this will disagree with me on.  however, that is good, because i
want people to show me support for their views, etc… 😉

i will probably write it tonight….  we’ll see though.

i finally got lyrics to the new zao cd yesterday….  anyway,
they’re pretty cool…. pretty dark though too….  anyway, here’s
an example:

“I see it in your eyes

The tearing in your heart

As I aweaken I learn first

First of dying

And lying inside the ground forgotten

I learn of love

I learn of terror

I feel the curse inside my body

My God

My God

Why have you forsaken me and put this curse inside my body

We live within a curse and within the divine

We’re born and raised to work

And then grow old and die

(In our golden time)

Strange

Cut and burnt then thrown into the tied

(I have lived and died)

Lie beneath the ground

Ascend into the sky

I feel the earth spinning slow

And winding down with the sun

I feel the curse inside my body

Running through my veins into my mind”

-“In Times Gone Past,” by Zao

so today i got all the modules i was looking for for postnuke up and
running.  the site seems to be coming together wonderfully… and
i can’t wait till elliot is able to get a template done for it 🙂

keep checking darkestlight.org…  things should be up and running pretty soon.

on another note entirely, i came across this post that Chad (of further
seems forever) made on their forums, i thought it was interesting, and
that you might find it interesting too:

“ Ok! here it goes. It is the last week of June
and Cornerstone 04 is rapidly approaching. Jon and Steve come into town
for one week of practice before we go to c-stone and play the main
stage. I know that it is not going to be our greatest show but it sure
does feel great to be playing our new stuff live, and to just be
playing again in general.

So it is about 1 hour until we play
and I can already feel the tension rising. Standing on the stage during
sound check was really odd feeling. It was not at all intimate. It
feels so wierd to be in this situation once again. Just to be judged on
every action from how we look to what we wear all the way down to what
songs we play and how we greet people. I feel like an ant with some kid
trying to burn me with a magnifying glass. It’s wierd it is almost like
a welcome challenge. I almost can’t wait to move into the next phase of
my musical carreer. It almost seems that in 1 hour it will all change
and into the next phase we go. People will hate us and people will love
us. I guess such is the life!

Though when Jason joined the
band we recieved so much more ridicule I guess with the growing
popularity of “Chris Carrabba” some kids hate him so much they felt it
thier duty to like us all the more. I guess the difference between then
and now is that Jon has nothing to prove to anyone. Some kid said
something about finding an emo singer intead of a rock singer.
It is
so funny how little people actually know about what they have come to
love like “emo” music. Kids cry for emo siting Jon as a rock singer not
knowing that he helped mold the pattern for emo. It is so ironic it is
laughable. Well it is time to go rock.

Well I am glad that is
over. I think the show was rated about a “C”. Not good enough buy our
standards but great considering the lack of practice and it being Jon’s
second show (wich shouldn’t be an excuse). I have been hearing a lot of
mixed reviews of everything, and like I predicted some kids hated it
and some loved it and admired us for it. All I can do is make music I
love, and be happy doing so. We were all happy to get that out of the
way. I will say that I havn’t heard anything bad about the songs on the
sampler except for an e-mail I got, wich is funny because than the kid
e-mailed me back saying he was sorry and listened to the stuff more and
fell in love with the stuff. He then admitted to fearing change. I
really commend that guy for being able to admitt to us he made a
mistake, what a great quality to have!

It was great seeing so
many old friends and getting thier encouagement. I look around and seen
for so many years people come and go in this music scene and it is
always the ones who scream the loudest fade the quickest. How I admire
those people who love music so much they endure the days in the heat,
dust and rain just to hear some great music. The ones who don’t do it
for the scene points or that don’t have shagy hair, or white belts, or
years before hade bandannas and running shoes with the coolest band
shirt they never even heard, but the ones who always find a way to
enjoy. I met a lot of those people this year!

All and all
C-stone was fun but I had a great time hanging out with my bandmates,
what amazing people, each one in his own special way. I can’t wait
until people finally hear this record on August 24th.

-Chad”

so i hit a setback in getting some stuff setup on darkestlight.org last
night.  and the forum is broken, so if you have been there…
yeah.  it will be fixed eventually.  i need to be able to
login to my mysql admin so that i can fix it, and right now i can’t do
that.  so i’m hoping sometime tonight this guy’ll get that fixed
for me so that i can get it fixed.  i am anxious to have a site
up.  but even if it does work…  the site won’t really be
ready… heh.  anyway, i am really tired.  i woke up this
morning pretty early (for me anyway), and nick and i drove down to
ellicott city….. so… yeah.  that’s gonna be it for now.

i bought the new version of Project 86 – Songs To Burn Your Bridges By today.  the new songs are awesome.

later.

“These petals this blackened rose
in a soil all my own
shrouding your hallowed ground
like seeds who’ll never sow
Like forgery and larceny
and my ill-gained revelry
I recite these scripted lines
While embers of a different time…
Go drifting by

When every word you ever said came true
All I missed in all of this was you
Can you see
A shadow on me?
Calling me to leave.
Find in me a trace of you
In all this tragedy.
(Can you see the shadow lifting?
Drifting home again
You’re the only home I know)

These pieces
The shattered shards
Dancing in the moonlight
Glimering and glistening
Preparing me for the night
I never learned to walk
the surface on my own
So lately this ocean floor
has been feeling more like home

When every word you ever said came true

All I missed in all of this was you

Can you see

A shadow on me?

Calling me to leave.

Find in me a trace of you

In all this tragedy.

(Can you see the shadow lifting?

Drifting home again

You’re the only home I know)

So take me in these fleeting moments of solitude in you
Remove this sordid fascination with shadow and remove
This shattered self of preservation
This commitment to undo
All that you forgave
And all you promised to…”

-“A Shadow On Me,” by Project 86

go and check it out: https://darkestlight.org

there is nothing there but some old edge videos right now… but hey… those are pretty interesting, right?  right.

later.

that further seems forever post was really long.
apparently i am more defensive of them then i thought… haha

anyway, this is just to let you know that my time here on xanga will be somewhat shortlived.

last night i registered the domain darkestlight.org
it is being hosted by methanesea.com

so expect to see my site there soon.