Brandon RAWKS! Brandon ROLLS! Brandon is awesome!
Seeing Brandon Brown win at Talladega was wonderful. A real shot in the arm for that whole team and always exciting to see a driver get his first win. Hopefully, he will get more. So, let’s go Brandon!!!!
My friend Tasha wrote this. Quite comical and interesting…mixed with some hard truths. Good stuff!
So, what’s the deal with Kim Jong Un? Is the dude dead, or not? Where did he go? Who has this sorted out? Who is in charge? If he’s still alive, is he a vegetable, as has been theorized? When are we gonna know what happened to the little guy? What is the point of this post? I don’t know. Why do I care so much about Kim Jong Un? Well, I guess I don’t to be honest with you. But, it appears to be in my brain. And now, it’s on the screen. So, ya, that’s what the deal is.
Yup, I’m pretty much done with this whole pandemic thing. Covid-19 can officially screw off! We don’t want you, and we don’t need you, you stupid coronavirus! We’re ready to move on. Summer will be coming and we want to do things. And by things, we mean we don’t want to sit in our houses quarantining! That’s the last thing we want to do this summer, you got it? Alright, I’m glad we got this straight. Now go away! What is your purpose anyway? Just to go around killing people, particularly the elderly?? What have you got against the elderly? What did they ever do to you??? Seriously? Pick on someone your own age! No, no, wait, forget I said that. Just stop picking on humans, okay. Go back to infecting bats and stuff and leave us alone! Damn you! You are unpopular! Like, Trump level unpopular. Mind you, I think some people may like you better than they like Trump, but don’t quote me on that. Some definitely love Trump to the point where they will let you kill them just to own the liberals and have the US open up again. Something tells me those folks aren’t long for this world.
So, ya, you know that Covid-19 thing that is going on? Well, I got a test. It wasn’t what I wanted. I got me a stupid head cold thing, with a cough. I am POSITIVE it is just a cold…more positive than I have ever been positive about anything. But, I was advised to go to the Emergency department to get checked out because I also have a stupid mechanical heart valve.
So, these darn people and their darn concern about me getting sick and dying and crap decided that I should go to the stupid hospital. And then, when I went there, the stupid people who are much smarter than I am decided that I needed the stupid Covid-19 test. So, I got it. UGH! Do you know what they had to do? They had to stick a darn Q-tip way the frick to the back of my throat through my nose! Frickin’ heck I tell ya! Frickin’ heck! It was awful! Fortunately it took about 1 second to do. But that what one unpleasant second, let me tell ya.
Anyway, I am now officially a statistic…one of the people that have had this test. I didn’t really want it. But I got it! Honestly? I’m kind of happy. Getting a cold during a pandemic is a wee bit stressful. I know it’s just a cold, but then you get these doubts. Is it a cold? Or is it THE PLAGUE OF DEATTTTHHHH! Some time this week I will find out for sure. That’s good. Right? Tell me it’s good. It’s good, right?
Well, I forgot I even had this blog until today. This whole Covid-19 thing is giving a lot of us time to revisit our blogs or whatever writing we have been putting off for whatever reason. I’m betting the creative output from this Covid-19 crisis is going to be one of the most prolific in modern history. Or, maybe not. After all, there is that tiger show on Netflix. Then there is the ongoing pursuit of trying to find toilet paper. And don’t forget naps. Okay, this won’t be the most prolific time in modern history for creative output. Forget I even said that.
I still don’t understand what people are talking about when they talk about god. And, in many ways, I’m not exactly convinced they do either. And when I talk about god in this case, I am talking about the god of the Abrahamic faiths.
When people say they believe in god, what exactly are they believing in? Often, they say this god is the creator. Okay, well, what the heck does that mean, exactly? Are they talking about a physical being that builds things…like a construction worker? Or, is this a creator that dreams things into existence? Where did he get his materials from? Is there a stockpile of various bits and pieces that he assembles everything from? How exactly does this work? And why? Why has this entity built the things it has? What is the point of it all? The purpose? Why would an entity build all of this? Was it all just to have beings that can worship him?
Many argue that god is like a watchmaker…that if you look at a watch, it has a creator, and therefore we must as well. That for a watch to work, it has to be perfect, and can only been created by an intelligent, skilled being. So, does this god assemble us, as if we are watches? Are we individually handcrafted? Does this god have hands? Is god an actual physical being? And if so, was god born from someone or something? Where did god come from to start with? How does he create all of this stuff he is credited with making? Beyond saying that god is a creator, there seems to be few answers to explain his involvement in it all.
They say god is love. Well, what the heck does that even mean? Does this love create things? They say god is all around us. Well, what exactly does that mean? Where? In what form? How? Is god some kind of gas? Is he in the air? I just don’t get it.
And then, there are those that seem to argue that this god is watching us at all times. He knows when we are sleeping, knows when we are awake, knows when we’ve been bad or good…and when we die, he gets to decide if we will live for an eternity in heaven or hell. Did god create heaven and hell? What are these things? Are they actual places? Are we going to be actual beings there? Or floating ideas? What will we be? Where will we be? What will we see….other than other dead relatives, apparently?
Many see god as the answer to everything. He is the creator. He has made everything around us. Everything we see is proof of god. But, to me, the god explanation raises far more questions than answers. And no one seems to have these answers. They insist that god made it all, but offer no explanation beyond that. What the heck is this god? No answer. No clarity. Nothing.
Originally posted on my other blog.
Well, on January 22, I head to Mexico City. I’ve been doing a ton of research and the city seems extremely interesting, but terribly daunting. It’s huge, as pretty much everything I read and watch likes to tell me. Anyone who I talk to who has flown into Mexico City airport says that, well, again, it’s huge. For as far as you can see it’s city. And that city is covered in a lawyer of smog. And that city is chaotic and seemingly out of control. It’s beautiful. It’s dirty. It’s sinking. It’s growing. It’s modern. It’s ancient. It’s safe. It’s deadly. It’s rich. It’s poor. It’s huge.
I’ve been checking out things to do and there is definitely no shortage. The question is will I get to do half of the things I want to do before I have to leave. That remains to be seen. The other issue is that half of the things I want to see have names that I can’t pronounce! How the heck am I going to get to these places if I can’t even say the name of the places. My Spanish is rusty, and by rusty I mean that the only thing I can say in Spanish is “Por favor, Senior” and make sounds like that Mexican mouse in Loonie Toons cartoons. That is probably not enough to get me around.
I’ve been a very lucky dude. I’ve had a lot of opportunity to travel. And, now, for Christmas, my wife got me a trip to Mexico City. And, for some reason, I’m rather scared, which is bizarre. I have never been scared before going anywhere. I’ve roamed the streets of Cairo, Moscow, Berlin, Istanbul, London, Ankara, Plovdiv, St Petersburg, New York City, Minneapolis, Paris, Lyon, Prague and more. Never did I concern myself with the issue of safety. So, why the heck am I nervous about Mexico City? Have I been brainwashed? Why do I think Mexico City is so scary? Surely it can’t be any more worrisome than any of the above cities, right? Especially Cairo or Istanbul? Even areas of Moscow? Yet, I survived. I suppose we hear so much about violence in Mexico, what with the whole drugs thing and all. And Mexico City is one of the largest in the world with a massive gap between the rich and the poor. So, will I be okay? Assuredly so….right? I have nothing to really worry about…do I??
…and I have to wrap. Oh the yearly wrapping dilemma. I suck at wrapping presents. I can never get the paper on tight enough. They always just come across as though I have wrapped them in a lumpy blanket. You would think after 44 Christmases, I would have figured out how to wrap presents, but oooooooohhhhh no, you would be wrong. So wrong. I am about to embark on this exercise once again. I have much to wrap and little ability to actually do it in a manner that doesn’t make gifts look as unappealing as possible. Wish me luck!
laughwithchris 