you can't have christmas without

Yesterday I went to bestbuy to check out if i could find home alone 2 on dvd because I know we have home alone 2 somewhere in my house but i can't find it anywhere, and there is no christmas without watching it. So i got there, and was looking around and found Home Alone 1, and it was on sale, along with Jingle All The Way. 2 for 30 bucks. So i thought to myself..."I do have home alone at home, sitting in its case, but it is a VHS and there is one part where the screen, well it kinda flickers and rolls, so i'm probably justified in making this purchase. And as for Jingle All The Way, well i'll probably end up renting it every year at christmas time so I may as well just buy it now, save money in the end and even get the 2/$30 deal right now." So i grabbed those two DVDs, but still did not accomplish my purpose for coming to bestbuy. So i searched some more for Home Alone 2 (home alone and home alone 2 weren't even in the same sections...kinda weird). I got this nice girl at the front to help me find it, and after a few minutes we finally found it in the family dvd section. So I picked it up and then went over how much money i was gonna be spending here. Even with the 2 for $30 deal, it would turn out to be like 55 bucks! I wasn't sure if that was worth it, but i REALLY wanted to have these movies. So, I ran out of the store with the DVDs in hand. There was only the girl in the doorway so i easily shoved her out of the way and sprinted to my car which, by the way, i left running. I got in my car, peeled out of my parking spot while being chased by a host of bestbuy employees who knew they couldn't catch me but wanted to be heros. I made sure that i drove through their crowd to scare them and made them dive out of the way. They were all in a frenzy. It was an inspiring moment. I then pulled out of the parking lot and safely drove home.

Then i realized that bestbuy probably had an army of cameras zooming in on my face that whole entire time. And most likely one of the employees was at that precise moment showing somebody how to use a digital camera and took a photo of my face while I body checked that girl. I guess it was a good thing i was wearing that balaclava the whole time. People gave me weird looks, but i just fingered them.

prophets foretold him

"absolute" would be ultimate reality; God, life-force or "One", nirvana, etc. If one of them is true, meaning to our lives can only be found through whichever one it is.

i'd discount the life-force or "One" option, because usually this is another word for nature which a person can become "one" with or else he or she will reincarnate... but nature is not absolute; it has a beginning (in the big bang) and thus its existence depended upon something else.

in terms of nirvana, i can't say i know lots about it but when Buddha reached this state he was still persuaded by other people to change things in his philosophy for the better (such as his father persuading him to make an age restriction before a son can leave his household to pursue enlightenment), yet Buddha had perfect knowledge in this state and shouldn't have had to be pursuaded in anything. Futhermore, he recalled an infinite number of past lives of his, yet this was his final life because he had reached nirvana. 1) infinity cannot end, because infinity is forever in the past and forever in the future. 2) there cannot be an infinite regress of events (such as lives) because one would never reach a "present" moment. 3) space & time began with the big bang billions of years ago, out of nothing, therefore there is no infinite amount of lives to be lived.

if there's a God...which one? the God of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mormonism? I guess this is where the not "copping out" part comes in. What's more important in life than finding truth and meaning? Why wouldn't people search and search for this, rather than let themselves fall into a sleepwalk of daily meaningless motions? Get out of the cave people.

joyful o joyful

i havent really been in the mood for anything serious lately, but today i was thinking about life and was wondering if i even know whether or not there is a meaning or purpose to life or not. it seems like we do things simply as a means for occupying our attention and time, to distract ourselves from boredom, lonliness, meaninglessness, and so forth. we set goals so that we can justify the way we spend our time, and once we reach those goals we make more goals and start a cycle. for example, as it now stands university is just a way for me to know what i'm doing for the next 4 years; to have something to achieve, to have somewhere to go, to create a habit of doing something which i can identify myself with for a period of time. once i'm done university, other things will take up my time and attention, such as a career, a mortgage payment, etc. And with these aspirations which are known to us, we can focus on our goals and not let the meaninglessness of it all infiltrate our minds. It seems like the only time we ever reflect on life is during the down times; the times we have nothing to do, nothing to focus on. That is why when we are bored, when no TV shows will be able to capture the attention of our restless minds, when no book will firmly clasp our mind away from its insistent wandering, we just think. And soon we are quickly dissapointed with the lack of answers to our questions and so we search for stuff to do in order to pass this empty time until we reach a "must" in our schedule, such as a shift at work or a class at school. And so our days are a series of a "must do" action followed by a small period of "empty-passtime" which is then followed by a "must do" and our cycle repeats until the ultimate end, sleep. And perhaps this is what life looks like in the whole spectrum of years. 13 years of pre-college schooling, 4 years of college, then the insurmountable years of work and house payments and family raising and relationship building, all mixed with "waiting" periods in which we wait for our next promotion, our next child, our next job, our next car/house payment, our next grandchild, until the ultimate end that we are waiting for arrives, death.

People try to avoid this outlook on life by saying that certain things give them meaning. its poetry, or its music, or its friendships, or etc. but we can't give meaning to our own lives. its useless; those "meanings" are just distractions from the meaninglessness. If we want meaning we have to search for an absolute, and stop copping out about it.

to face unafraid the plans that we made

Why do the canucks always have the worst first period?
if they would just actually play in that 1 period
every game would be so much better

hmm maybe i'll go set up the christmas tree
because it is less than a month till christmas
and who sets up their tree to only have it
up for 1 week, that THAT is a waste of time

i havent had a drink this mornin' but i'm lit up like a christmas tree

3 out of 4 of my papers are done! yes

my brain is tired from writing

one more paper to go, but its not a research paper

so i shouldn't really have to spend too much time on it

then its kind of smooth sailing till finals

which are pretty simple



that psycho's gonna pull some crap

he's got monkey's juggling knives in his head



doesn't double spacing look really neat compared to
single spacing? after writing papers i think double-spacing
makes me look more sophisticated a writer than people
who don't double space because they get marks off



but then again books are single spaced and they can be

written by really smart people with good things to say

who don't lose marks.

u know i think i'll probably fail all my papers

becauese i probably either

a) didn't even have a thesis

b) was inconclusive

c) plagerized

d) had major grammatical errors that i couldn't find because if you accidentally

blink while you're proof reading you'll miss the only major error in the

paper which will make the teacher think you're a really stupid person who should

be in ESL



i ain't tryin to dog the old man in red
the white beard or the flying sled
truth be known i always did enjoy
the thought of santa bringin all the toys
but now rudolph, frosty and all the gang
christmas, it wouldn't have been the same
but
our minds' been mis-aligned see
this season was once defined as a birthday
for the mighty king
Hark, the herald angels sing
about peace
and mercy all the while
on this day we were reconciled

uno momento por favor

While i'm waiting for the drano to unclog my shower drain, i decided to remember that i could pass 30 minutes by blogging. Today and tomorrow i have no school, so it feels really good to have been able to sleep in today till about now. I like it. However, that is about the extent to which these two days will feel like days off, because i have three papers due on tuesday, and i am about halfway through one of them (or just more than halfway, 4/5 pages). So i'll be researching and writing probably at the library. But it's okay, i'm a master at arguing. Maybe i'll post up my essays! i bet everyone would be fascinated by them, right todd (since you're everybody)?

So basically it's christmastime you guys. Get out your mittens, touques, wool sweaters and 4 inch thick socks. Take out those dusty cd's that you only listen to for one month out of the year, and buy some more too (a&b sound has a great selection of contemporary and classics alike). Find your staplegun and long tangled cords of broken bulbs and fasten them to your house (but remember, when using a ladder, make sure you have a partner to hold it still). Strengthen your vocal cords, put on some chai tea (because remember, singing with cold cords can damage your voice) and go caroling.

I'm going to shower, ta ta todd.

Question:

What are you looking for in life?

an idea so brilliant, it just had to be blogged

School. I'm sorry to say that it's actually pretty good. Actually, i'm not really sorry to say it, because if it was terrible than i'd hate going, and that would be far worse than having to sound lame and saying that I like school. But yea it's quite good. Philosophy is gonna be an awesome course I can tell you right now, because it's pretty much what I want to learn, so when i read what's comin up next class I'm like "SWEET! THE KALAM COSMOGICAL ARGUMENT!" or "NO WAY!? THE EMPIRICIST THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE!" Hmm, english might be okay too, because my prof says she doesn't give lectures, we just have discussions every class, and that she'll actually show us how to read poetry so we can understand it for once. History...well i guess it's interesting but it's kinda boring at the same time. New Testament is awesome so far, we'll be learning stuff about translating and critisms and stuff like that I think. And then there's greek which is so simps, and the teacher is pretty funny and tells us what's on our upcoming quizes that we have each week. So overall, school's good and i'd bet that i've met more people in the first 2 weeks than i have in my past 20 years of life before that.

The new switchfoot cd is pretty good. Similar to the last one, where there are a couple amazing songs and the rest are okay. Well they could be awesome too but i've only listened to it like once. Just, you know, the amazing songs always stand out right from the start.
So buy it...don't steal it, and don't say "i have no bling." That's right, I know all your style.

Oh and another thing about school...today i had to write a response to this thing i read for history. Only had to be 1 to 2 pages long, double spaced. Yet, i took like 3 hours to do it (i started at like 3 and its 8 and i just finished, i took breaks between though, for dinner and some raymond and etc.). I believe it's gonna take quite some time to get in the habit of putting my thoughts together and putting them down in essay format, because I haven't done it in pretty much 3 years. So hopefully that happens, because if not than when I have to write research papers it'll take me months.

Oh and maybe I'll write something that pertains to the title of the blog...my reason for starting it in the first place, and i forgot about till just now when i looked at it before clicking "Publish Post." The brilliant idea is this:

Starting tomorrow, which is friday, I'm gonna start getting ahead of my school work. So...i'll do all the stuff due for monday tomorrow. Everything due for tuesday i'll do on saturday. Everything for wed i'll do on sunday. For thurs i'll do on mon. For fri i'll do on tues. For mon i'll do on wed...and it'll keep going like that till i'm so far ahead that i'll finish early and just have my essays to write and my midterm and final. The reason this is possible you ask? Because at university they give you a schedule of all your homework and test dates, and mostly, what you read in your textbook is what the homework is based on, not what the teacher teaches. They may clarify or talk briefly about it, but mostly they lecture on stuff not mentioned in the textbook, and there is no homework on that stuff, just questions on tests. So i can do all the homework way in advance of each class, and therefore, rule the school.

Goodnight

Comment KkKkrazy

You will now notice that when you add a comment to my blog, you'll have to do a little verification thing. Because I hate those stupid ad's, i've had to delete like 3400 per post. So suck that you blog spammers.

logic = math

So I ordered this book (remember Todd and Scoot you came over for practice and I was paying for it and told you it was like 40 bucks for a frickin book). Well anyways, i'm reading it, and it's basically a philosophy textbook. Starts out with what philosophy is, goes into logic, then metaphysics, ethics, and other stuff that is probably gonna be death to my brain. BUT right now it's okay because looking at logic is like looking at algebra. You have your letters, &'s, or's, brackets, negatives, positives. The only difference is words instead of numbers. And I was kinda overwhelmed at first because there are so many rules, but since it's so similar to math and physics, which we all did in grade 11 (well maybe not physics, but i just mean the algebra in physics), i've been able to understand it pretty well. And you probably see no point in me saying this to you, but mostly i'm saying it to myself. I'll probably start writing lots of crap on what i learned, because ideas and word definitions stay in my memory a lot better if i write them all out. So one day you might come and see a new post from Jon and unfortunately it will just be some lame definition or some

modus ponens
1. P --> Q
2. P
3. Q

1. Objective moral values exist only if there is a God.
2. Objective moral values exist.
3. There is a God.

I'll probably end up writing all the 9 rules out, because i can't remember them without looking back at where they are explained...

Oh, the art of innuendo.

Make it a goal that before you die you will go to Valencia, California, pay admission into Six Flags, and hop on the roller coaster called Goliath. All other coasters, in comparison to Goliath, provide the thrill of reading an Instruction Manual which reveals the inner workings of MS DOS. Now I know that some of you (todd most of all), would love to revel in the knowledge of how MS DOS makes compatability with Windows and the computer hardware possible, but trust me Todd, Goliath is even more gripping than even that.

So school starts soon...like this saturday...will be Orientation day and then becomes Orientation week. I don't know how much of that I have to go to, and I plan on not going to as much as possible. Maybe Lindsey can fill me in on the "manditoryness" of it all. Then, thursday it all starts up, and homework begins. I hate homework. Work is okay because once you're done the day, you're actually done the day. But at school, once you're done the day, you bring more "day" home. So, I'm Game Over. Not in the same sense as G-rath and Todd though, because what I have to do I don't really want to do.

Who gets sick just in time for the weekend?

Of course it came on Friday night. That aridity of the air quickly set it's sensation on the back of my throat; swallow a dry sting. Seemingly, it isn't a good idea to sit outside at night in a damp seat. I'm sure that my body was so working on warmth that a virus just nonchalantly walked right into my system - gleaming.

While asleep, the dust of the air and the dust of my teeth formed an army of tiny sponges which, stuck to my already parched throat, absorbed every last bit of relief left in my mouth, and they themselves dried out with every new breath of my own. But then the saliva would come, and the sponge army would be replenished. It was a war. The sponge soldiers clung to my mouth with a fierce grasp, and no cough of mine - my only defense - could carry them out. They would steal my "revival of saliva"- produced by the body, for the body - that was meant for my aching throat. I woke up in anguish. I drank water. But the army stayed; revitalized.

In order to win a war, you have to know your enemy: These sponge soldiers would only hold the moisture in the top half of their pores. The bottom half they would let dry, so as to form a complete solidified bond with my throat tissue. Coughing would do nothing; cold water would only penetrate the outer regions - the sidelines - of these inner pores, and would add extra vitality to their force. I had to take it to the next level: Tea.

Hot water could perhaps deteriorate some of the dried bottom of the sponge. So I drank Tea with all my might. However, it was only a temporary relief to the dryness. It seemed that the sponges would be heavily leveled at the bottom base for a time, but it would only take a few instances of fresh air for them to rebuild their foundations of dry agony in the back of my throat. They knew too well the arsenal of the defense. I had to adjust my motions.

I went to the medicine cabinet. The sponge army smelt the full vigor of death with every capsule filled container. But they screamed at me, "Capsules take time! We will dig in with all our might until that time comes!" Threats. They threatened me. Anger exploded. I shouted back at them, but it was all grumbles. My tongue, too, was on its last legs. I frantically looked at label upon label, hoping to find one with the exact words "To Kill Sponge Soldiers" written on it. But nowhere was one to be found. Vitamins, Omega 3's, Enzymes. My time was drawing near.

But then, I saw her. The little maiden of my eye. A small, white container with a spray-top. Curious, I read the label. "Echinacea Throat Spray". The soldiers panicked. As I lifted the lid off the spray-top, they hit with all their might. I fell over in pain and anticipation. My mom watched in slow motion as I brought my hand up to my mouth, positioned the hole towards my mouth, opened my mouth so wide my dentist would have rejoiced at the sight of it, and pushed down that spray-top with the acknowledgement of the final fist towards the cowering face of the sponge army. They shrieked; they swore; they hurled insults in every direction. The stinging was almost nauseating. Clutching to life, they begged for water and I almost gave in; the taste of the spray was shamelessly horrifying. But I pressed on and smacked those fluevy's with another blow. The last of them tasted death, but not before muttering some extreme expletives. My ears were appalled, but I knew that this was the end. I, Victorious Jon. They now knew my name.

in response to big bad blog

When Scott, Todd, and I go see a band play, and they are amazing, we all think (usually aloud) "Why can't we write amazing stuff like that?" or "How did they get so good?". And then we go home and Scoot will sit with his guitar and is inspired to write amazing stuff, and he does. So what happens is something amazing (we'll call it "A") done by somebody else, leads to the creation of something amazing (called "B") in and out of another person. But the reason this new B is created, is because, in this case, one person first listened to A, and then practiced the same art as the person who created A; Scott listened to a band, thought their song amazing, practiced or worked on the art, and he now writes B. We go from having a certain envy to making something amazing! Atleast that is the way it is with Todd, Scoot, and I.

So it is with writing papers or stories. Maybe I'm okay at writing, or smart, or whatever. But the reason that I can improve at writing and the reason I can get smarter is because I go home, read something that amazes me, then want to learn what it means and how to relay it to other people. So just as Scott does with music - listens, is inspired, works on, creates - I am like that with writing.

You may notice how in life, the thing you spend most your time with is usually the thing you become like the most. A kid that only hangs out with a bunch of potheads, becomes a pothead. A kid that only listens to emo, starts to dress and act like an "emo kid". A guy who reads a lot of books, turns into a guy who can write a lot of books (or atleast has a lot of ideas he can write down). If you don't spend your money on something useful, you've wasted your money; if you don't spend your time on something useful, you're wasting your time.

So really, if Scoot sat down and read books, he would become an amazing writer. He knows it. He's engaging and he's honest. But I admit that the desire to sit down and read a book is hard to come by; it takes so long to finish a book. But we're not reading books to finish them. If it takes 3 months to finish one book, it was 3 months of reading, not 3 months of finishing. When you have something to write about, something that you feel passionate about, and information to present and back up your points, you become a good writer. And reading not only gives you something to write about and the knowledge to make strong points, but it exposes you to the styles of great writers.

Just blog already.

Well I thought that since I haven't written anything for a few days I would add to the short list of previous posts. However I haven't anything specific to write about...

I just noticed that when I'm typing I don't capitalize any of my "I"s. And I'm 100% sure that once school starts I'm going to hand in an essay with all lower case "i"s in words like "I" and "I'm" and "I'll". And reading through this (yea I proofread my blogs) I noticed that since all these "I"s are now capitalized, I seem to stress them more. Like, I seem to pause a split second at the capital "I" and then say the word louder and longer than I normally would. Yea, apparently the lazy internet way of writing has not only made me forget grammar and spelling, but has made reading become awkward. Stupid ICQ. "uh oh".

For people that read: I've been reading this book called Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton. Read it. He may have been the greatest writer of the entire 20th century. (Philosopher in the early 1900's, "this was the man who wrote a book called The Everlasting Man, which led a young atheist named C.S. Lewis to become a Christian. This was the man who wrote a novel called The Napoleon of Notting Hill, which inspired Michael Collins to lead a movement for Irish Independence. This was the man who wrote an essay in the Illustrated London News that inspired Mohandas Gandhi to lead a movement to end British colonial rule in India.")

Well said Charles.

Some wish to live within the sound
Of Church or Chapel Bell.
I want to run a rescue shop
within a yard of Hell.

C.T. Studd

BLOG! the new fad

Well for me & todd anyways. I'm sure more people will catch on, because although todd usually is the first one to start the trend, I am the quick popularizer of it. Right myspace?

As i'm looking at my wall, i'm reminded of something Scoot said today...

Daddy Long Legs without any legs would be the worst next life in the history of karma. I mean, you would just be a ball. A ball that looks around and gets sucked into air conditioning vents and blown from room to room, and then probably into a vacuum with a bunch of dog hair that cushions your fall into the chamber so you can't even die and start another existence! You'd just look at dog hair and dust, and wait till starvation occured. But with a daddy-long-legs who has no legs' luck, some mosquito would get sucked into the vacuum with you, and again, the dog hair would act as a life saving coushin. I thought life as a tree would be worse, but under the circumstances of no legs and a mosquito bite, Scoot wins.

Hello, Mr. Igno Rant

"By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people." - Romans 16:18b

So yesterday I was watching Larry King, or well he was on the TV while I was eating dinner, and he had as his guest Bill Maher (Host of HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher"). And for who knows what reason, Larry asked to get Bill's view of evolution vs. intelligent design. Here's a bit of the transcript:

KING: It's no more -- it's -- intelligent design now replaces the other word?

MAHER: It's creationism by another name...

And it's like this, with intelligent design, it's such a, it's such a, you know, around the back end way of expressing an idea, which they -- just be honest and say, we prefer to believe in the fairy tale. We prefer to believe in the fairy tale that God created the world in six days.

I mean, what does that mean, intelligent design? It means that apparently, the world is so complicated that there are things about it we don't understand, so it must be invented by somebody -- let's call him Jesus' dad -- who understands things we don't. But it's like saying, we don't know how those monoliths got onto Easter Island, so we're going to say aliens brought them.

It's not rational. It's not smart. But it's more comforting. Just say that. You want to be comforted.

Now the extraordinary thing about Mr. Maher's argument is that, unfortunately for him, he doesn't even know what Intelligent Design is (although he tries to define it). And this is obvious because he says that advocates of the movement "believe in the fairy tale that God created the world in six days." And any single person who has ever even read one thing about the Intelligent Design movement is that the science involved does not refute the idea that the universe (notice Bill says "world") is billions of years old, nor that the Big Bang happened. ID supports those theories, knowing that the first chapter in Genesis is written in a poetic (not poetic, but i can't remember the word, some type of hebrew literary device) account of creation, providing the fact that there is only 1 God, he created everything, he created man in his own likeness, etc.

Too bad Bill Maher likes to talk about things he doesn't know anything about, because for the rest of the show why should anyone take his points seriously? Or read his book? Lame.

It's all figured out!

Sarah, my first post is dedicated to you.

Soctrates --> Plato --> Aristotle --> Alexander the Great.