I admit it: I'm addicted.

In case any of you were wondering what I have been up to the past couple of days and not posting, it's simple: I'm watching 24. This is one of the most addicting TV series I have ever watched. Yes, I love my comedies but I don't watch them like I watch this series. 24 is like a roller coaster: you want to ride it over and over and over again.

I need to get season 2.

More on Ukraine

If you want to know about the Ukraine elections, this is where you need to go.

Good News For the Terrible Swede!

I love irony.

speaking of irony, I woke up before the crack of dawn yesterday (long before it). At 2 AM, my father and I were up and went to Best Buy to buy a new computer and monitor for under $400. If you could live with a CRT, it was under $200. I am now typing this on his new flat screen. What this means is the old computer is now gone, along with all the improvements I was going to make with this blog. My html edits are sitting in a word file somewhere. Thus, the major shakeup is postponed until I can get the old computer back up and running. I didn't save the file to anything and that wasn't smart on my part. Not smart at all.

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving as we now prepare for Christmas as Advent begins.

You Are the Stuffing

You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together. People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why.

What Part of Thanksgiving Are You?

Take the quiz, if you're not busy hanging out with your family.

There is a word to describe this: wrong. All wrong.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and eat real turkey. Please.

Why do I love Thanksgiving? Football. There is pro football on Thursday, followed by college football on Thursday night. There is college football on all day Friday. There is college football all day Saturday. There is more pro football on Sunday and, to top it off, there is still Monday Night Football.

Happy Thanksgiving all, and watch some football.

Just for the sake of everyone, I want you to know that there is going to be a major shakeup on this blog this next weekend. What will happen? That is for me to know and for you to be surprised at. What I can tell you, however, is that the links section will get shuffled. Many who have lived on my good will might be unplesantly surprised. I'm breaking up the WORLDMAG blogs up. I'm going to name or leave a new or old Blog of the week. I'm going to rename all the links packages and cram some links back together than I never should have split up. Basically, sometime this weekend, the blog you have come to know and love will morph into something different. I've wanted to do this for a while and, because of the Thanksgiving holiday, I'll have the time.

BTW, you can ask questions in the comments. Just don't be surprised if I don't give you straight answer.

If you ever get the chance to party with a bunch of Hispanics, do. Last Thursday I had the chance to do just that, taking the night off from ESL to eat and dance to our hearts content. Now that Tuesday night has come, I didn’t realize how much I really miss my students. Jesus and his s-bombs, Alicia and her English which is better than she thinks it is, Saul and his English that’s better than he thinks it is. I really enjoyed volunteering my time to do this and I’ve met many good people who I probably wouldn’t have given a second thought to if I just passed by them. I told all of my students to keep using their English regularly, no matter what state it is in. I’ll keep on using my broken español because it is broken very badly. I shall see them all in January when we shall plumb the depths of Dr. Seuss and see what we need to work on.

The party was also a baby shower for one of the former students. She now has enough diapers to last her at least a month. What can I say? That’s all I could think of to buy.

I had written one of my better posts last night, I thought, and the [expletive removed] computer, software, internet, etc, wouldn't let me post it. I should know better to write my stuff out in Word before posting it, but I didn't. Poo on me.

I have a couple of posts in mind for this next week, in a vain attempt to make up for all the stuff I didn't post.

I've gone to quite a few retail stores in my area and I have found the the whole "Christmas after Halloween" phenomenon has disapated somewhat. In some stores, it is tough to find any Christmas decorations at all.

I write this enormous rant against Premillennialism and the internet went kaplut right before I tried to post it.

The basic gist: premillennialism isn't Christologically sound and it isn't even consistent. How the hell does someone who believes in the right of a believer to choose Christ come to the conclusion that all Israel will be saved without embracing predestination? How come you never hear a premillennialist discuss realized eschatology? How come premillennialism, with its simplistic hemanutic, ends up with one of the most complicated eschatologies out there?

The computer now has Winblows XP rather than Winblows 98. To all of those who gave me advice as to a new OS to install, I say, "When did I ask for that?" Really, I could have cared less. All you did was annoy me. How come my readers refuse to give me advice when I actually ask for it and decide to give me advice when I don't ask for it? Why?

My sister is doing reletavely well. She cannot put any weight on her knee fir six weeks (aka next year) and she cannot out her full weight on it until the middle of Feburary. In essence, they didn't know what was wrong with my sister's knee and it turned out to be the worst-case scenario. With pain pills and rest, however, she should have a full recovery.

Sorry about the lack of posting the past two days. No computer plus no time equals little to no blogging. Anyway, I ask you all say a prayer for my sister who is having knee surgery today.

In case you are wondering, "When will Daniel take off that stupid college football poll?" it shall come down once 50 people vote in it. My next poll question shall involve I don't know what.

I need to get back to work. Later dudes.

I went to a well yesterday. We were perforating the casing on an oil well. Good well. I now have a hazardous substabce in a little sample container. This oil is green, light, gassy oil. I can't tell you exactly where this was because the well is confidential. I can't even tell my family where the well is because I have to keep some things secret.

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them Ablaze (TM), says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.--Malachi 6:1 (ESV, slightly revised)

I found this reading this past Sunday to be quite ironic considering the state of this buerocracy we mistake for a synod. However, this leads me right into another point: interpreting scripture in light of recent events, which is exactly what I did above. Premillennial Dispensationalism often uses this ridiculous hermenutic to interpret scripture as unfolding before our eyes rather than looking at scripture Christologically.

Rob and Devona won.

Posting will be light until I can get my brother to help me reformat the hard drive and reload winblows.

The new (and promised) quiz is up.

My computer went kaput today. It doesn't recognize the internet, if you can get it to boot up.

The vote was close, but Love and Blunder has pulled into a comfortable lead.

I've lost 10.5 pounds of fat this past month. I've only lost 8 pounds, however, which means I'm starting to bulk up. Hell Yeah!

I'm sore, but life is good.

Will I cheat and vote for myself every day? I won't, but is that really cheating?


No, it's not cheating because I allow everyone to vote once every day.

Do the voters have to be human?

If they can use a mouse well enough to vote, who says they have to be human. I might let my cat vote.

And how long are the polls open?

The poll shall be open until this Sunday evening (when I get to change the question to "who do you think will play in the Orange Bowl?")

And one more thing...how am I supposed to compete with a baby as cute as Olivia ?

Being that it is 20-18-2, I think you are competing.

Update: The current voting is 17-11-0 with Love and Blunder ahead of Intolerant Elle who is ahead of St. Stephen who will probably get promoted once he posts a picture of his new child which isn't here yet. Yassar Arafat is dead and it is Veteran's day. Read this.

Remember, you can vote once every day. Hell, I know the weaknesses of these polls and, if I really wanted to (I don't), I could swing this election really easily.

Will Love and Blunder win out? Will the WELS crowd come out in force or will the LCMS' numbers just be too much? Will the whole state of Alaska vote? Will a Patriarch find his way to this site and give Karl's blog one lousy vote?

While I am busy saying "Happy Birthday", happy birthday to the Marine Corps.

I lasted as long as I could. Really. The problem is politics is not anywhere near out of my blood. When you find an opinion piece like this, you just have to post it so you can turn all things political orthodoxy on its head.

The more progressive candidate won

Happy Birthday Martin

Thank you for participating in the previous poll. Rock music may have won, but the official music of this blog is digeridoo music.

I now want you to vote for three possible blog of the week candidates. I promise whoever you vote for shall rise (or remain, in one case) to the Blog of the Week spot. All three are worthy canidates. You are only allowed, however, to campaign for your own blogs on your own blogs. Other bloggers (we'll call them 527 blogs for lack of a better term) are allowed to campaign for you in the comments section on my blog and anywhere else they feel like. If you don't like this, you can thank the senior senator from Arizona for this.

Happy Birthday Martin

Tomorow shall be the last day you can vote in my letest poll. Send your favorite music over the top. Have your favorite pull away. This is your last chance to vote before I change the poll to a new topic.

Strange Women Lying in Ponds and Castle Argghhh! are now part of my blogroll. The first link I linked to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away and the second link is inspired by the same movie that the first link was inspired by.

I'm waiting for a blog to be named Castle Anthrax.

Why do people persist in beating dead horses when, to be honest, things are out of control and there is nothing we can honestly do except pray and hope God has mercy upon us? I really don't get it.

After much thought and contemplation, The Terrible Swede will stay under a state of Kool-Aid until he ceases to be the World's Largest Filipino. I am taller than him, I am slimmer than him, and I now know I can outrun him. I am a cheetah compared to him at this moment. I can run miles and miles without breathing heavy or breaking a sweat.

I started working out again about six and a half weeks ago and I feel so much better. Much of the chest pains have disappeared and I've found myself to have more energy that I once did. I just overall feel better. I just hope I can get down under 200 soon. After that, 180 will be calling.

While temptations surround me every day, I shall not succumb. I shall not blog about national politics.

Suspicions grow that Arafat is dying of AIDS

Who knows if this is true or not. This explanation, however, best fits his symptoms.

I hate being patient. Last year, quite a few of us all got together and watched FoTR and TTT extended editions in one swoop. That was fun, but we all suffered. Once RoTK is out (in extended edition, of course), we shall all reconvene and watch all three movies in one long day. The extended edition of RoTK adds another 50 minutes to a movie already pushing four hours. This is going to be a twelve hour day (at least) watching one movie. Yes, all three movies are just one enormous movie that had to be broken up so you don't go insane in a movie theater for twelve hours. Well, we're going to voluntarily inflict this upon ourselves. Yes, my friends and I are insane.

Now that the election is over and things politically have settled down, I can get back to the reason why I originally started blogging in the first place: taking an axe to the LCMS bureaucracy. I know it has been a while and some of my newer readers may not have realized it, but this blog's primary mission is criticize the power structure in the hope that, well, I'm not sure what I am hoping for.

So, has anything gone on while I have been in full I dislike Kerry mode? Lots has happened! There have been three conferences in the past month to discuss what the next move will be for us confessionals. We should know what's happening within the next few months.

LCMS 2004: Losing Its Reformation Heritage

Another view of the Chicago Conference

Still Another View of the Chicago Conference

Still Yet Another View From Chicago

LCMS Ignores Request To Follow Congregational Constitutions

Bolland Writes: "Its Time To Leave [LCMS]" RN Replies

You have a point, though I would argue it was YOU who put the gay marriage stuff on the ballot to create a wedge issue to get Bush elected.

I shall be nice responding to this. If I remember correctly (and I believe I am), it was the Massachusetts Supreme Court's decision who brought this out on the table. The fact that the Republicans reacted to this event is to be expected. The simple fact is, however, that if the Massachusetts Supreme Court doesn't make that ruling, no initiatives are on the ballot and gay marriage isn't a major issue this election.

I give the award for the best election coverage by a Lutheran Blogger goes to:

Intollerant Elle

with a close second to:

Kiihnworld.

By the way, someone should explain to Democrats that if you put 11 gay marrage initiatives on the ballot, you're going to bring the right out with a vengence. Chris wondered what happened. That was part of it.

I was going to post Johann Gerhard's meditation "The Daily Consideration of Death" tonight but I just do not have the time. My bed calls.

Get out and vote people!

I know along with the national election, there are all sorts of state and local elections and issues you also need to vote on. Here in my hometown there's an issue of a new arena. I know there is everything from Constitutional Ammendments for states to just bond issues for schools. Vote once! Vote legally!

Turnout is high. I waited in line for an hour and ten minutes.

And, while you're at it, keep voting on my little poll.

I shall post one final anti-Kerry article (actually, an article on any politician that "personally opposes abortion but will not force their views upon others") before leaving the election in God's hands. Tomorrow, expect a post on death on the day of the Commemoration of the Faithful departed. If you want election coverage, go to the Command Post. I'm going to be too busy teaching Geological terms to people who can't speak English.

Unimposing Kerry

The new version of Lark News is up.

College offers degree in pastor's wiving. This is getting too close to reality...

Clowns-4-Christ strikes deal with 'desperate' WNBA.

... Thus, regardless of all the arguments of both candidates the main problem is that President Bush now represents a symbol of defiance against the terrorists and it is a fact, that all the enemies of America, with the terrorists foremost, are hoping for him to be deposed in the upcoming elections. That is not to say that they like the democrats, but that they will take such an outcome as retreat by the American people, and will consequently be greatly encouraged to intensify their assault. The outcome here on the ground in Iraq seems to be almost obvious. In case President Bush loses the election there would be a massive upsurge of violence, in the belief, rightly or wrongly, by the enemy, that the new leadership is more likely to “cut and run” to use the phrase frequently used by some of my readers. And they would try to inflict as heavy casualties as possible on the American forces to bring about a retreat and withdrawal. It is crucial for them to remove this insurmountable obstacle which stands in their way. They fully realize that with continued American and allies’ commitment, they have no hope of achieving anything.

Read what an Iraqi has to say about the election

(via Right Wing News

Kerry's "Honorable" Discharge wasn't quite so honorable

One more reason not to vote for Kerry. If he was not honorably discharged as an officer, he isn't qualified to run the drive-thru window at a Taco Bell let alone the Presidency.