is ROTC unethical?

i kinda want to join ROTC, but i dont like what it stands for. even if i never do anything with my armed forces skills, it would still be supporting a violent association. on the other hand, i would enjoy learning the values and skills they teach during the schoolday. you would probably meet alot of devoted people there too, in stead of in marching band when they're just there to screw around. it would probably be alot less expensive too. its a good thing i dont have that option since ive already signed up and started paying the fees for marching band.

"How He Loves" John Mark Mcmillan

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane,
I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us so

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And the heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

advanced understanding

i am reminded, once again, of how differently i think from the other kids around me. when friends at lunch complain about teachers who give them projects and never collect them, to the point that they say they hate the teacher, i struggle to explain to them that they are not working for the sake of the grade, but instead, they are working to learn. the basis on which school is grounded is eduucation, in other words, learning. but do you know how stupid i sound when i tell them that? "who cares if they collect it! its the learning process thats important!" oh yeah, sure...

the auto-dilator

the light switch for my garage is inside my house so when i turn it on, theoretically nothing happens. Its weird, you usually never notice this and people say you cant feel it when it happens, but i swear i can feel my eyes dilate when i flip that switch. it feels like when someone sets off a camera flash in your eyes in a dark room, you can almost feel them expand. its such a strange feeling to have your eyes dilate themselves as a reflex.

the misunderstood stepmom

its hard to see my friend's relationships with their step-parents, because i know so much about the other side. even Keelie, who is silently perceived as perfect by all, has relational issues with her stepmom that make me cringe inside. she lies to her stepmom about her lunch, telling her she likes stuff just to be polite, but then she comes and gripes about it to us when her stepmom gives her more the next day.i know its not a big deal, and i know she thinks she is doing the right thing by staying quiet and being polite, but i know all too well how much it hurts her stepmom. i know how hard my mom tries to establish real relationships with all her kids, and how much it hurts her when someone pulls back. i always wish i could do something when she is having to fight her way into someone's life, but i know that would only make it worse. sometimes i can tell she is close to tears when her voice starts to shake, which had only happened about three times in the past, and i want to hurt the other person so bad! but i cant.

"Fade to Grey" Jars of Clay

And then I see You there
With Your arms open wide and You try to embrace me
These lonely tears I cry
They keep me in chains and I wish they'd release me
Cold is the night but
Colder still is the heart made of stone, turned from clay
And if you follow me
You'll see all the black, all the white fade to grey

Contradictory messages

There are so many contradictory messages going around, it’s hard to know who to believe. Some people say “your nothing, Gods doing you a favor to take you under his wing”, then the very same people it seems turn around and spend hours telling you “you are worth His embrace” and “don’t ever let anyone tell you your not beautiful”. Whos right? Both of them can’t be right, can they? I’m so confused.

WORDS!!!

Wafture - the act of wafting; something wafted.
Wamble - to move unsteadily; (of the stomach) to rumble; growl; an unsteady or rolling movement
Whinge - to complain fretfully; whine.
Vivisection - the action of cutting into or dissecting a living body; the practice of subjecting living animals to cutting operations, esp. in order to advance psychological and pathological knowledge.
Vitrescent - becoming glass; tending to become glass.
Vitreous humor - (Anat) the transparent gelatinous substance filling the eyeball behind the crystalline lens.
Vexillologist - one who studies flags.
Verbicide - the willful distortion or depreciation of the original meaning of a word; a person who willfully distorts the meaning of a word.
Verbigeration - (Pathol) the constant or obsessive repetition of meaningless words or phrases.

relational enlightenment

i just realized that i want a relationship with Jesus Christ. i never really thought about it, but all my life people have been telling me i wanted to know Jesus, and i have been believing them. its like a megga-comercial. its almost like something Mr Wheeler was talking about... he said some commercials are all showy and munipulative because they think they have to be, but ipod commercials never really have to say much, because you already know how great they are. if enough of the right people tell you you want it, you just might start beleiving them.

i saw the Passion the other day, and my favorite part was the first flashback (the one where Mary was calling him for lunch). i started thinking, "hey, i wish i had a friend like that... ", and then i was like "oh... i get it know"