Religious Tolerance

What if you’d only ever seen Alec Guinness from one angle? And what if he was the only human you had ever seen or heard of? All you would know of him is exactly what you saw in front of you. Standing behind him, you would quite reasonably assert that he had two distinct ears. Meanwhile your friend standing just a few feet away to the left of Sir Guinness is insisting that there is only one ear. One ear? That’s preposterous! There’s clearly two ears right there. Is your friend even looking at the same Alec Guinness? And whatever a mouth is supposed to be, it’s obviously pure fantasy. You’re looking at Alec Guinness from head to toe right now, and there’s nothing that matches that description. What on earth is a nose? And eyes?! These jokers can’t even agree on how many of these “eyes” Alec Guinness is supposed to have. Your friend says it’s one, and that girl over there is claiming he has two of ‘em. If they’re going to try and pull a fast one over on you, they should at least get their story straight.

Update: This post was originally titled “Organized Religion”, but upon reflection I realized that tolerance is what I was actually thinking about when I wrote this.

Cultural Creative

I took a quiz entitled What is Your World View? and here are the results.

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative		100%
Idealist		81%
Postmodernist		75%
Existentialist		63%
Modernist		44%
Materialist		31%
Romanticist		25%
Fundamentalist		13%

So then I wondered what in the world a cultural creative is supposed to be. I did a search on google. I went to the first result and took that site’s quiz to determine if I am a cultural creative. Apparently if you respond in the affirmative to at least 10 of the 18 questions, you might be a redneck cultural creative. (I got 4.)

100% just doesn’t mean what it used to.

Sleep Numbers

With a little time to kill before a movie, Katy and I visited a store in our local mall that sold those high-end beds that let you digitally manipulate the firmness of your mattress.  They have a highly structured sales process in which they demonstrate the bed for you. 

The salesperson keeps the control in their hand for the first half of this presentation.  They start with the bed set to a very uncomfortable extreme (at least for most people).  They talk for a while explaining some things about the bed, and then begin decreasing the firmness of the mattress until it feels comfortable.  It's easy to imagine a dialogue going something like this.

So lay down.  Now, this is the highest setting.
Oh, this is very uncomfortable.  I definitely need a lower setting.
Sure.  You can change the firmness with this control I have in my hand.
Please, make it softer.  Or give me the control, I'd be happy to experiment.  This is so very unpleasant.
Before we change anything, though, I want to direct your attention to this screen.
Ow.
The pressure sensors that we have attached to this bed show where your body is being supported.
Please.  My lower back is starting to tingle.
Notice all of this pressure placed on your hips and shoulders.  There is almost no support being given to your back.
I don't need to see the map to tell me that.  I have pressure sensors built into my body.  They're called nerve endings.  Will you please just hand me the control?
From this we can tell that this isn't a very good setting for you.
I can't feel my legs.

That wasn't my experience, by the way.  I found that the closer the mattress was to a sheet or iron, the more comfortable I felt.  Whenever the mattress got softer, I felt like my lower back was forced to curl in on itself.  My lower back is very independent and doesn't like being forced to do anything.

She Said: Gluten-Free in Aught Six

A few posts down you may have noticed my dear, darling husband’s glowing praise of the “Walking Taco.” Lest any of the readers of this site continue to believe that our switch away from gluten lead us right into the bottom of a Frito bag, the wife would like to clarify a few things.

Let me start by stating, for the internet record, I like Walking Taco. Do I love it? No. Do I think about it early in the afternoon with anticipation of the evening meal to come? Certainly not. Do I even eat it with Fritos? Ah…..no. It is hard to claim that my version of the Walking Taco is anything, but a taco salad. I use totilla chips, taco meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream. Put it all in a bowl and viola! But, is that a Walking Taco or a taco salad?

Now, let’s take a look at what my husband does. He uses Fritos, taco meat, and cheese. Put is all in a bowl and viola! Wait!! What?!? Did I say bowl? Why yes….yes, indeed I did. The whole point of calling it a Walking Taco is because you can walk with it all contained in your little Frito Snack bag.

I ask you, people of the internet, is this a true Walking Taco or just a sorry attempt for my husband to remove the word “salad” from anything he consumes?

Truth Would Be Stranger Than Fiction If It Weren’t the Same Thing

I’ll admit I was a little late getting in on this phenomenon.  It wasn’t until just a few weeks ago that I saw my first episode of the television show Firefly.  Within a week I had watched every episode ever made.  That may sound impressive until you realize that less than a single season of episodes was ever created.  It was more than enough to win me over, though.  I even bought a shirt that says Joss Whedon Is My Master Now.  If you don’t get that joke, but would like to, see the context. 

So part of the premise of the show is that the empirical Alliance crushed a small rebellion of independents, not quite affectionately referred to as Browncoats, in honor of their wardrobe of choice.  The show’s protagonist was on the losing side of that battle and still holds a bit of a grudge.  In a surreal (but perhaps not entirely surprising) turn of events, fans of that fictional universe have decreed that the cancellation of the television show is a parallel to the epic battle that occurred on Firefly.  (Or more accurately, in Firefly’s backstory.)  They identify themselves as Browncoats and describe the network as the “Alliance”.

For my own part, I did sign the virtual petition to have a second season of the show because it truly is a phenomenal piece of entertainment and art.  Of course, as in the series, this is a battle that was lost a long time ago.

Step Off

First and foremost, I think it’s important to stress right at the beginning of this blog that I’m not doing this for you, dear reader.  The prevalence of blogs today is simply God’s way of telling me that I don’t need a predilection for unicorns and rainbows to keep a diary.  (To anyone who skins their blogs with unicorns and rainbows, please accept my heartfelt apology.)