Degeneration of What's in that Petri

I was watching a recent episode (Talking Points) of Law & Order. It was an episode about Stem Cell Research. At the end of the show, Jack McCoy was asked, "How do you feel about stem cell research?" He answer was something like, "If we are created in the image of God, I think we are a degeneration of what was once in that Petri dish."

That was a powerful statement because I feel that it is true. I believe that this generation of humans is a watered down version of our forefathers. I believe every generation after us will be even more watered down.

I think about my ancestors. They ate a steady diet fat-back, hogmaws, chit'lins, and other fatty foods; and a large majority of them lived to be well into their 90s. But us, we can't even eat one hot dog without almost going in to cardiac arrest.

I can't even stand to be out in the sun these days. If I am out in the sun for longer than 40 minutes, I almost pass out and my skin breaks out in a rash. My ancestors stayed out in the sun all day without problems.

What in the world is going on?

Let's get to the church world. We are some watered down saints for sure. People leave churches just because of the message the pastor preached. I grew up on hell-fire and damnation sermons, and we did not leave our church. You can't even get people to come out to the weekly services. We used to have services everyday of the week. YES! Everyday. And every member of the church came out to all of the services, even choir rehearsal. That part was crazy; there were non-choir members at church for choir rehearsal night.

Does anyone know who their neighbor is anymore? When I lived in my apartment like 15 years ago, I knew the neighbor across the hall. I saw her everyday. I even stopped and talked to her. I knew that her daughter was in college. She knew that I was in college. I enjoyed that. I moved to another apartment in that same complex and I did not know any of my neighbors. I say some people and said hi to them, but I didn't know them. (I take that back. I heard them curse their children out by name, so I knew a couple of the children's name.) Where I live at now, I don't know any of my neighbors. That's shameful.

We don't even fellowship at church like we used to. With the appearance of mega churches, it is hard to fellowship, but I miss the down home atmosphere of the small church. It felt good to have someone know your name, but I have found out that most Christians now-a-days like the amenity that the mega church gives them.

We are a wiser generation, but we are some weak human beings. God help us all.

To quote Jack McCoy, "If we are created in the image of God, I think we are a degeneration of what was once in that Petri dish."

Rex Grossman

I am praying for Rex Grossman. So much negative stuff has been said about him. I feel bad for the guy. I hope he gets a chance to show everyone what he can do next year. BIG UPS! To Lovie Smith for sticking with him through out the whole season. I know that made Rex feel better.

Give It A Rest Please!

I keep hearing this and I am so tired of it.

Apparently, while Prince was doing Purple Rain, it looked like he was using his guitar to represent a certain part of the male anatomy. I did not notice it during the performance. I have a friend who said it made him do a double take, but he didn't think twice about it.

Why is everyone trying to make a controversy where there isn't one? Almost every sports commentator on earth has had something negative to say about the performance. I just think they are trying to find something negative to say. I wish they would give it a rest already.

Prince @ the Super Bowl

It was crazy seeing Prince sing with his head rag on. That was so crazy. I ain't mad at him though. I hated it when my perm gets wet and frizzy, too.

I enjoyed his performance. My husband went crazy when he saw the FAMU band come out and play with Prince. My hubbie is a Florida boy.

They had a Super Bowl party @ my church. I wonder if they watched the half time show. :)

The National Anthem @ the Super Bowl

I was not impressed with Billy Joel's singing of the National Anthem. It did not impress me in the least bit. It was bland and monotone.

Yolanda Adams sung the National Anthem at one of the Divisional Championship games. She did pretty well. I enjoyed her signing it.

I have not been impressed with a celebrity singing the National Anthem since Whitney Houston sung it. That girl sung her heart out. They realized the song on cassette and then she went platinum. That is too crazy. Girl knows she could sang.

The Super Bowl

I watched the Super Bowl. When Devin Hester ran the kick-off for a touchdown, you would have thought I was routing for Chicago the way I was screaming. Nope. I just wanted to see Devin run one in. That was so cool to see him do that. He is a Florida boy. My husband is a Florida boy, so I have to root for Florida boys. :)

I don't think Peyton should have been MVP, though. He did not do anything worthy of getting the trophy. I think Joseph Addai or Dominick Rhodes should have gotten it. I think Peyton got it because he finally won a Super Bowl. That's just my opinion.

Holding Out

I was riding home after church on Sunday. I was thinking about how long I waited before my husband came. I was 33 years old and I was a virgin. (I know you all don't believe me, but I really was.) I didn't complain about a man, but I did want one, just to have someone to hang out with besides my brother. (I love you, Jerry.)

I was thinking about how if you wait on God, He will make your wait worthwhile. God blessed me with an excellent husband.

Hezekiah Walker's new CD, 20/85 the Experience, was playing on the CD player. "Hold Out" was playing. The song talks about waiting on God. Before I knew what had happened, I was crying like crazy and praising God. I know my husband must have thought I was crazy.

When you hold out and wait on God, it is an awesome thing, the blessing that He gives you. I can't express it like I want to, but God is an awesome God!

***
Hold On as sung by Hezekiah Walker & the LFC
I'm going to hold out
Gonna hold out 'til He comes
God has just begun
Too make a Way, make a way for me
I'm going to hold out
Gonna hold out 'til He comes, God has just begun
To make a way, way

(Chorus 1)
Storm clouds may rise
Strong winds may blow
I know the Lord will take me through it all

He'll make a way, way

(Verse)
(Chorus 1)(x2)
(Verse)(x3)

(Chorus 2)
I'm going to hold out
Gonna hold out 'til He comes
Hold out 'til He comes
Hold out 'til He comes
Don't give up
Don't give in
Hold out 'til He comes

***

I am going to hold out.

Housework

I cleaned up the house today. I washed some clothes. I got most of them put up. It is hard trying to keep up with the house work. I feel good that the house looks relatively decent, not that it was a pigsty before. The house looked lived in. :)

I tried to do a little computer work today, but I didn't feel much like it. I watched my video tapes, so that was cool.

I am trying to reach over 100 words with this entry because my last few entries have been rather low in the word count area.

I am going back to the housework. I got over 100 words. YEA!

Weekly Goals: 2/4 - 2/10

I have written out my monthly goals, for the entire world to see. I am also going to write out my weekly goals for the next week on each Friday.

Here are my goals for next week

1. Put up clothes
2. Make icon for blogs
3. Update LDW
4. Update GBF
5. Update Maddocha
6. Update Always Inspired
7. Fix Collier City on Gossip
8. Add Tammy & Helen to Gossip
9. Add Writing Blurbs from here to my writing blog.
10. Add NaNo Blurbs to my writing blog.

Bolded goals in Arial Font have been completed.

A New Month

This is a new month and I am looking forward to it. Here are my goals for the month:
1. To write something everyday, no matter how big or small.
2. To write more on the Gossip Series.
3. To be more organized from now own.
4. To write down more of the story ideas that I have come up with.

I am looking forward to the month of February. The Super Bowl is this weekend. That will be cool.

Items in bold were completed.

Go COLTS!

Pride Stickers

I received FOUR Pride Sitckers this month.

Y Y Y Y

Writing, Rather the Lack Thereof

I have challenged myself to try to write at least 800 words a day. I really want to write 1,000 words a day, but 800 seemed more obtainable with my schedule. I have found it hard to do. The most I have written in one day is 836 words. That was a combination of writing

I am having a hard time trying to find time to write. I have a crazy schedule and it does not afford me much time to get into a continuous stream of writing. I get up at 6 AM to take my husband to work. He has to be there at 8 AM. I don't have to be at work until 9 AM. Well, there is an hour that I have to kill, but I don't have a quiet spot where I can write. When I do find a spot, I only have 15 or 20 minutes to write. Once I get into a flow, it's time to go.

I work from 9-5 with a half hour lunch, so I can't find much time to write during that time.

On most days, after work, I have to take my husband to school. So, I am still going. When I do stop running, I am so tired that I don't feel like looking at a computer, much less writing anything.

When I do put fingers to keyboard to write, the words flow. It's just trying to get my fingers to the keyboard. It's hard to start, knowing that at any moment I may get interrupted and have to stop writing. I am trying to write something everyday, even if it is only a journal entry.

I am going to do it. I can't wait until the summer though; I will so much free time that I should be able to write like crazy. I am speaking that, so it will be. :)

Enduring to the End

Have you ever been waiting on something to happen? Have you ever been waiting to be delivered from a situation? Endurance, that is what it takes to last. It seems as if this current generation does not have any endurance. Endurance is the fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships, and more. It is also defined as the ability or strength to continue or last, despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina.

I am waiting on God to deliver me from a situation. It has been a hard fought journey and I haven't always made the journey easy. It seems like it is taking forever. I have always prayed, Lord help me get through this. I don't like praying Lord; get me out of this now, because that means I will have to go through it again. I am waiting patiently to be delivered. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. It is a very dim light, but I can see it.

To endure, takes a certain mind set. You have to determine in your mind that you are going to endure. You also need to have it settled in your spirit that you are going to endure. The fleshly man always wants to quit and give up. But, if your spirit man is settled, then you can endure.

It gets hard time, waiting on God. I have devised a set of questions that help me to wait on God...
* Can I do anything to fix the problem?
* If I try and fix the problem, will I make things worse?
Once I answer these two questions, then I go from there. If I can fix, then I fix it. If I can't fix it, then I tell myself I have to wait on God. That's where the hard part comes in.

For most of my life, I heard the older saints say, "He (God) may not some when you want Him, but He is always on time." I never understood it until recent years. We always want God to come at the moment that we ask Him, but that is not always the right time. When God does appear, He always appears right before it is the last moment. Then the saying rings true.

I am still holding on and waiting for my change to come. There have been moments when I thought about acting a fool and quitting, but I have not done that. It is taking everything in me to endure.

I have the strength to continue or last, despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions.

Frustrations

Sometimes, life can be so frustrating. Crazy things happen. I mean crazy things that don't make any sense. I have had things happen to me that I can't even make up. Stuff that just doesn't make sense.

One day, I woke up feeling fine. There was nothing wrong with me. All of a sudden out of the blue, I get diarrhea. I had not eaten anything. I had not drunk anything. I just got sick. I still have yet to figure that day out. Things went downhill after that. That happened like 5 years ago. I remember it to this day. That's the kind of crazy stuff that frustrates me.

When I get frustrated, I get irritated. I mean everything irritates me. It seems like everything goes crazy when I get frustrated. Everything moves slower. People seem to act crazier. Traffic seems to be crazy. Ugh!

This is just irritatingly frustrating.

Gossiping Thoughts

I am currently working on a series of short stories entitled, Gossip. I was just thinking about gossip as I typed up one of the stories. It is amazing how quickly a Christian can get caught up into gossip. I know from experience.

I did not grow up in a gossiping household. We did not do taht. Even now, my mother is the last person to know any kind of gossip. Once it gets to her, it is usually 6 months old. We did not have a gossiping spirit at our church either.

At one of my more recent church homes, I became caught up in gossiping. It was easy to do because the pastor has a gossiping spirit, and the whole church has that same spirit, but they call it "SHARING INFORMATION." That's a load of bull because it is flat out talkign about people.

My brother and I happen to know some people, who know some people, who know some more important people. So, we have access to some of the top gossip about well known people in the religious arena. My brother and I got caught up into gossiping with the pastor. We were the ones who verified any gossip that he heard. We got deep into it, too.

In all honesty, it was fun being the one who knew the gossip. I ain't even gonna lie. That was a rush, to have people coming up to me and saying, "Is it true, what I heard about SO IN SO?" It felt good. (Sin is fun and it feels good for awhile.)

Things turned bad when my brother and I were the ones on the receiving end of the gossip. (Read a little about that here.) It is a lot more fun telling the gossip than it is being the one who talked about. Lord, have mercy.

Now, I am no longer into gossiping. I have to pray though, because it is hard to resist wanting to know more when someone says, "Have you heard what happened to SO IN SO?" It takes a lot to not say, "What happened?"

Be careful what you say about others. Someone may end up talking about you.

Pride Stickers

I am setting goals for myself this year to write a certain amount of words each day. If I reach my daily goal, I will place a pride sticker on my laptop for that day.

I can receive multiple stickers for each day if I write over the daily goal.

I love getting stickers on my computer.

Sticker Count

This is for my prewriting for NaNo. I earned SIX pride stickers.

Y Y Y Y Y Y

God Is Good!

God is good!

Excuse me, I feel like gettin' my praise on. Join me if you feel it.

The Saga

Here's the whole Saga with D and I from the beginning to this point.

:: He Emailed Me
:: Email To D & From D
:: D's Nails
:: There They Go Again
:: Slapped Upside the Head
:: Email to D About 4-2-03
:: The Saga Continues
:: Here It Goes Again
:: Why It Always Gotta Be Me?
:: It Ain't Right
:: My Feet Are Pointed Straight
:: Frustration & Them Thangs

Here is some poetry that is related to the whole saga.

:: Hypnotic Spell
:: Thoughts Back
:: A Brief Moment
:: The Spell Is Gone
:: Spiraling Down

Frustration & Them Thangs

I still want to talk to Mama I about the added things to this saga. I like talking to her and Mama S. Although most of the time with both of them, the end up telling me about their issues. I have nearly given up trying to find a listener like me to talk to. I am probably one of a very few people who can listen without discussing my issues and dispensing unrequested advice. Jerry always dispenses advice unrequested, all the time; so for me, he is a last, very last resort. He gives good advice, but you haven't asked for it most of the time.

********************

I think Mama M is po-ed at me. She said some things in an email, some harsh things. I responded back harshly. I was having a rough day and I didn't like what she said and the way she said it. I felt the need to say how I felt. She responded back and told me to get a life, in those words.

She told Jerry about it and showed him the emails. Jerry, who goes off on whoever is standing in front of him at the time, tells me that I should not have responded in the manner that I did. Oh well, Mama M is po-ed at me. At this moment, I really don't care either.

I was trying to let Mama M be my confidant because she is sweet and touchy feely, but I always end up back to Mama I and Mama S. Mama S says that I think I want that sweet, touchy feely love, but what I really want is some tough, tell it like it is love. She might be right because both Mama S and Mama I have the same exact personality type.

Lord, have mercy on me.

********************

Why does Jerry have me passing notes from Mama M to Papa W. Jerry has his number and he can make a phone call. I ain't his secretary!