| 11-30-00 |
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here is something i wrote for class.
excuse the caps.
What is the Point? "What is the point?" An interesting question, although possibly one of the most ambiguous ever posed to man. The entirety of the inquiry is found on the highest level of its potential meaning. Simply put, one must think of all it can mean before choosing the one thing it does mean. This brings us to the point of defining the question. The question, "What is the point?" is set up as a definition in itself – the answer may be restated as "What is the point." Now, to what does the what refer, and likewise for the point? First off, we must define the point. The point is ultimately the culmination of all efforts of man at any level to do anything at all. Now that the term is defined, we must find the value of the what that will correspond to the definition of the point. When we think of man, we think of the master of the earth, and of animals, and of his own choices. The foremost task before me is to dispel this horrendous lie. Man may very well be the master of the earth, but only under the authority of God. Likewise for his mastery of animals and choices. When an action is done under the authority of anyone, the result of the action goes to the credit of the authoritative figure. In this case, any mastery we show over the earth and its denizens – the mastery itself being from God – is but a glorification of His work. This brings me to the third, and most complex topic. If one commits a sin under the authority of another, such as a wife under a man, the sin goes to the name of the man, whereas if the woman commits a glorifying act, it is her husband who is glorified in God's eyes (Ephesians 6:22-27). It follows then that if one commits a glorifying act, the glory goes to God. And what of sin? Does the sin committed under the Lord's authority go to his name? The obvious truth is that it already has. Jesus died on the cross to take upon himself the sins of the world and be a ransom for man's eternal life. Aside from that, the sin of man brings the opportunity for God's glorification through discipline. The fact that man can be sure that his sin will find him out is in itself a testament to the glory of God. Therefore the what is the glorification of God. It follows then that the answer "What is the point" equates to "The glorification of God is ultimately the culmination of all efforts of man at any level to do anything at all."
The beauty in the logic itself is a testament to God's awesome glory. |
| empty (emp-tee) - void of content (like my vocab section) |
| quote: "you're missing the point." "no, you are missing the point." ~the usual suspects |
| 11-28-00 |
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conscience. pain. substance. existence. with what metaphor may my joy be expressed? gifted, fallen, faulted, accepted not accepting, failng but intrinsically molded insomuch as i realize my shock i realize my effect there is not much to say but i kept this for thought. the reticent |
| peculate (pek'-yoo-layt) - to steal or misuse; embezzle |
| quote: human intellects obtain their perfection in the knowledge of truth by a kind of movement and discursive intellectual operation...as they advance from one known thing to another. ~thomas aquinas |
| 11-27-00 |
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didyouknowthatinancienttimestheydidnotusespacesbetweenwordsorpuctuationinsentences
ithinkthatthatisveryweirdandjusttoshowhowharditwouldbetoreadanentireliteraryworkiam
goingtowritetodaysmessagelikethisiapparentlyhadthedatewrongyesterdayandiapologizefor
thatiguessijustdidntfeellikecheckingthecalendarbecauseithoughtiknewthedatenowontoa
newsubjectthesubjectofstressihaveahistoryinterviewdueonfridayandaphysicscapsuledue
thursdayiamprettysurethatitisimpossibletodothembothbutistilldontexpectleewayfrommy
teachersascoolastheyaresometimestheyjustforgetthattheyarenoteachtheonlyteacherinthe
schooligetsostressedoutthatibegantofeellikethelettersthatiamwritingrightnowall
constrainedandcompactedwithnotruedefinitionandaveryhiddenmeaningassoonasicanstart
gettingeverythingdone i will feel like i have time to breathe i will use spaces i will not have a headache and i will not feel so pressured then i will start to give definition once again to the things that i do. i will separate the true thoughts with punctuation. i will have coherent, measured, and concise thinking. i wish that i could always feel like that. butidont |
| christendom (kris'-en-dum) - a spiritual kingdom conceived by gregory the great that would fan out across europe from rome |
| quote: i am straight outta compton ~mrs. harvey |
| 11-20-00 |
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| expostulation (ex-pahs'-chew-lay-shun) - an earnest reasoning; remonstration; a vehement demand |
| sarcastic quote of the day: it's cool to hate, yeah, it's cool to hate. i don't like nothing and i like that fine. it's cool to hate, yeah, it's cool to hate. liking something's just a waste of time. yeah i hate everything. i even hate you too. ~the offspring |
| 11-26-00 |
| i had so much food that it makes me wonder that i can move. thanksgiving was a great time, although it estranged me from this page and my beloved readers. this weekend has been completely packed. i went to evansville and saw my cousins whom i have not seen for a year. then i saw my other family, and this is where the cool thing happened. i was at my grandmother's house -- as that is where we all gathered to eat. while there i noticed a bookshelf that i had passed countless times and stopped to read the titles. well it turns out that this shelf was filled with a collection of books called the britannica great books. as i look through the names on the books (they were sorted by author), i saw such great writers as aristophanes, dante, gibbon, tolstoy, locke, plutarch, ptolemy, and hobbes among others. this was amazing to me, and i picked up the first volume called the great conversation. this book was basically an introduction and overview to the remainder of the set. it turns out that i have borrowed the next three volumes from the set. these are two volumes of the great ideas, a collection of essays over selected topics such as angels, beauty, love, man, and world. the other volume contains the writings of homer, namely, the iliad and the odyssey. i have already read the odyssey, but the iliad looks interesting, as do the great ideas. so anyway, i will now embark on a massive excursion through the great books of western civilization. don't even bother asking how well it's going because, i assure you, it will take over nine years or so to read the entire 54 volume set. |
| vociferous (voe-sif'-er-es) - loud, noisy, or vehement in making one's feelings known; clamorous; characterized by clamor or vehement outcry. |
| quote: for such truth as opposeth no man's profit nor pleasure is to all men welcome. ~thomas hobbes, leviathan |
| 11-17-00 |
| having not yet found in my most resolute of endeavors a way by which to convince -- not to partially or trivially persuade, but to wholly dissipate illusion -- the majority of the uneducated people of our country, i have not only resorted, but resolved to make known my complete opinion of the presidential election of the year 2000 and term following this said election. i do not like al gore. i do not believe that he would be a beneficial president of our country because of the fact that he has cheated his way to his close following in the presidential race. i say cheated, not only because he has harnessed the power of the media and the justice system to his control, but also on account of the fact that no attention has yet been drawn of late to the fact that he poisoned the water supply of many large cities -- santa monica, ca included. when he first set into motion the clean air act during his term as vice president of the united states of america, he required by law that a chemical be put into retail gasoline in order to make it "burn cleaner" (or more cleanly, as it were). this chemical may be one of two substances: one being made from the by product of corn and used in the midwest states, and the other being a chemical called mtbe. now, using our logical minds (as we are much accustomed), would it be more intelligent to test the as yet not aforementioned chemical for toxicity or to blindly require that it be put into our fuel supplies without prior testing? one would think that so humane of a person would have taken the more humanitarian (and, oddly enough, logical) approach of actually testing the chemical. now, one might raise the argument that it need not be tested for the fact that it was in the gasoline supply, but he must also look at the truism that anything put in the gasoline supply will leak into the water supply from underground tanks! in short, it takes one half cup of mtbe to contaminate a city water reservoir to the point of disallowing consumption. santa monica was without water in one part of the city. but -- was this brought to our attention any less than a year or two ago? certainly not! when one is running for president it is simply uncalled for if the media brings up past mistakes. oh wait... the difference is this: george w. bush tried cocaine. he got a dui in 1976. this was brought to the immediate attention of the public to smear his image. al gore killed more than one person with his beloved pollutant. but that does not matter, because it is not the media's place to show us the real al gore. |
| exhortation (ex-hor-tay'-shun) - a plea to urge earnestly by advice or warning |
| quote: and i don't mind if i fall -- it's not that far at all. ~fuel |
| 11-15-00 |
| i removed the link to payback productions. he got a new banner from a site with which i do not agree. not only that, but he has been pushing the limit with coarse language lately and even admitted to being too lazy to vote. that is just something that i cannot condone. not yet being of age to vote myself, i find it completely irresponsible and unforgivable to fail to submit your opinion on the leader of the country. i only find it so in the case that the subject in question is highly opinionated about politics; i do not want a bunch of indifferent slobs voting for the man whom they believe "looks younger." in any case, i have in fact heard quite a few of these people bragging about their methods of choosing a candidate. i feel that it is definitely the wrong approach to wait until election day to read the literature and check out the issues. i also feel that no points should be given out on account of the candidates ability to admit to an unethical lifestyle. i am not sorry in the least that clinton will be out of the white house come january 6th because of the fact that he "owned up" to his misbehavior. i am also quite amazed and rather disconcerted about the rate at which the national memory lapses. clinton was involved in a sexual scandal in the white house. so? you may ask this, but does anyone stop to realize the massive media coverage of this issue? i have a theory. i believe that this scandal was blown completely out of proportion in the media for the purpose of drawing attention away from the dodgy dealings with china. wake up people -- china has every one of our military secrets. that was a serious breach of national security. i, for one, have in fact noticed that this so called "conspiracy theory" does have applicable value. only because of the fact that we hear about it first on the far-right broadcasts such as rush limbaugh and stan solomon is it completely put out of the mind of the populace. i hope that eventually -- before i fall prey to this system -- people will wake up and see that the outrage of the youth is a direct result of the idiocy of the culture. |
| apotheosis (uh-pah'-thee-owe-sis) - the act of raising a person to the status of a god; deification; a glorified ideal. |
| quote: when, indeed, men speak of beauty, they mean, precisely, not a quality, as is supposed but an effect -- they refer, in short, just to that intense and pure elevation of soul -- not of intellect, or of heart -- upon which i have commented, and which is experienced in consequence of contemplating "the beautiful." ~e.a. poe's the philosophy of composition |
| 11-13-00 |
| well i am now listening to the brand new offspring cd. oddly enough, it doesn't technically come out until tomorrow. hmm, go figure. i have this odd feeling that no matter how many times i demonstrate logic to those around me, there will still be some that refuse to see the reasoning in my decisions. people ask me why i put my opinion so brashly on the internet. well, bluntly, i will answer that it could not possibly matter less to me if you disagree with me or that you are offended by the blatant truth. these same people will ask me why i don't spend any time on so called "prevalent topics" such as racism and stereotypism. to be honest with you, i believe that we were created in races. would god refer to the amalekites or ammonites as such if he did not mean any differentiation between the two? surely we were created to have the capacity to receive the same amounts of god's love, but does this mean that we can't be different in any ways? of course there are reasons for stereotypes. this does not mean that any race is worth less than another, only that we each have our specific downfalls that are statistically supported and show to be more prevalent in different ethnicities. i will make this clear right now: i do not believe in segregation, but i do not believe in affirmative action. i would not, for example, hire a woman to run a country or a gay man to write a love song to a woman. i would not hire a white man on welfare to represent a conservative publication, to head up the naacp, nor would i hire a black man to mediate at a white supremist conference. i do believe that abortionists are murderers. i believe that girls who have abortions are murderers. i believe that absentee fathers are scum. i believe that the death penalty is right. i believe that animal rights should only apply to a certain extent. i believe that we are to eat meat and wear fur. but the bottom line in all of this is this: i believe that everyone can be forgiven. enjoy a wholesome life and use your reasoning to compare what you do to a moral standard. i believe that the correct moral standard is the bible. enjoy your stay at reticence.net. |
| empurple (im-per'-puhl) - to make purple. |
| quote: when will the world listen to reason? i have a feeling it will be a long time. when will the truth come into season? i have a feeling it will be a long time. ~the offspring |
| 11-12-00 |
| here's an idea. everyone take out their anger on their kids. no, really -- it's a great idea. you will get to be aggressive, hateful, and ill-tempered, and it's okay because it is to your kids! better yet, don't do it to your kid if you are actually angry at him -- do it to your stepkid!! sweet!! anyone ever hear anything so sensible and logical? because of the fact that you married his mother and were given some sort of mental control over him, he can't do anything about it if you tear his emotional stability from the inside out. now, i know that i have been unreasonable in the past about a few things, but i think that i have turned over a new leaf. i recommend antagonizing your helpless stepchild and destroying his faith in human kindness. it sets a good example for him. he will end up constructively stealing from his children and exercising his totalitarian power -- just like he is supposed to. |
| disenfranchised (dis-in-fran'-chized) - deprived of a right of citizenship or of a power (e.g. the idiots in palm beach are painting themselves disenfranchised as a cover for either a massive stupidity or an enormous democratic lie. |
| quote: an angry man gets drunk and beats his kid, the same old way his drunken father did. what comes around, well, it goes around. ~the offspring |
| 11-9-00 |
| america has gone soft. it is too true. did we used to ever feel threatened by other nations? nope. do we now? nope. should we? israel has mandatory military service. china has every war secret ever held by us. we disarmed our 17,000 nuclear warheads in an idiotic attempt to bring peace. even russia has a stronger army than we have. why do you think people are so intent on electing gore? why this massive democrat shuffle to stir up what was a fair election. what is the reason for this LIE? bush WON. they are LYING to us saying that they miscounted by 1400 votes. that is not by ANY means true. i know that america will do all that is within its power to elect the scandalous rat that tried to poison us by putting a toxic chemical (mtbe) in our gasoline, and thereby our water supplies. i know that we are so stupid as to look at gore and say, "he should be in the white house because he knows we know he is lying and he is a big enough man to pretend he isn't a spineless good-for-nothing imbecile. honestly, if we want to put america at the grace of our enemies, i say elect him. |
| phthisis (tie'-sis) - any wasting disease, as tuberculosis of the lung. |
| quote: the way the country is run today is like an armed guard having rocks thrown at him and not being allowed to shoot back. if i ran the country it would be more like 'BAM!' 'oh my gosh you just shot him!' 'yeah...' 'all he did was throw rocks and you shot him!' 'well, he shouldn't have thrown the rocks.' ~gast (who has my vote for foreign relations offices ... ALL of them. |
| 11-7-00 |
| i have been watching the election closely. i think that george w. bush will be inaugurated on january 6 of 2001. just a personal opinion. i know that the discrepancies of this terrible system will be debated for months to come, so i am going to bed. gore has just won california, which, i must say, puts him much farther ahead. i think bush will win though. anyway i am chipping steadily away at the works of edgar allan poe and am now on page 875 or something. i recommend the journey, by peter kreeft, to any logical thinker in search for truth through such logic. i wish i was out of school for another year, and i would voluntarily and not in the least reluctantly return. good night america. |
| dissolution (dis-el-oo'-shun) - the dissolving of a substance, or metaphorically, of a plan. |
| quote: no trend or fad or integrated system formed to rise and rule is formed without a sort of hated government and spared the fool. ~the reticent, shriek in the darkness |
| 11-5-00 |
| my friend's band is so awesome. they are called eminence. i will put up a sample or three pretty soon. i didn't know that people actually write good music anymore. these guys are great. they are only seniors in highschool and the singer sounds professional not to mention the guitarists are awesome. i am going to totally promote these guys, because they seriously have potential. they are better than anyone on the radio right now. i also just got the cd's from liquid tension experiment. they have the most talent of any musicians i have ever heard in my life. ever. seriously. anyway, you will be able to find those cd's anywhere probably, because they are already accomplished musicians. i have actually updated this page for three days in a row. okay well i am off to prince prospero and the masque of the red death (oddly enough, the name of the eminence song that i am listening to right now is prince prospero). enjoy the words and such today. |
| clamant (clay'-ment) - clamorous, noisy; demanding attention, urgent. |
| quote: to me most things [from within us] that are natural are not really good. it's when we rise above our natural inclinations that we do our best. ~bruce tinsley, cartoonist of mallard fillmore |
| 11-4-00 |
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i have gotten rid of the durius waterpic. i liked it, and i still do, but it is really a deterrent to traffic to have a title page such as i did. this new reticence.net should be a little easier to use as now you need to type "reticence.net" in your address bar to reach this page. i have a new logo, but i don't have a place to put it yet. you can see it here. go ahead and click on the mail to: link in the side bar and tell me where it would look good. i am kind of on a blank period with content for the page, although it is only because of the massive edgar allan poe summary with which i have been occupied. this does not mean that i will not have new quotes and musings, words, and philosophies, but that there will be no more new poems added for a while. i am currently composing the fourth and final installment of the legacy, a series of endtime poems by myself and xslade. there is also a humorous picture of the day, compliments of sarah...
 a little bit of higher mathematics humor for you. |
| forgo (for-go') - to abstain, refrain, or refuse to take part in or advantage of an opportunity. |
| quote: every fiction should have its moral; and, what is more to the purpose, its critics have discovered that every fiction has. ~e. a. poe's never bet the devil your head |
| 11-3-00 |
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i find a keepsake in the terror of your vice in the faulted reminiscing is the confidence replaced i have never missed a beat of your heart your soul your mind and i cannot find the place that i used to reside find in me what i want to find in you. i got a link from payback productions. it has brought quite the amount of traffic to my site, so i throw a shout out to mindr4pe. alright, where am i? ahh yes. i am on page 750. this poe book gets better and better. i highly recommend the short story the island of the fay. too good. i may find time to put more up tomorrow, but for now i have a rendezvous with xslade and the lucid nightmare. go check out boredom. thank you for your attention. enjoy. |
| forensic (for-in'-zic) - of, characteristic of, or suitable for a law court, public debate, or a formal argumentation; specializing in the application of scientific knowledge in areas such as legal matters. |
| quote: never play leapfrog with a unicorn. ~gast, the inspirational |
| 11-1-00 |
| i am not going to say anything about halloween. as i have previously stated, i have lately been reading the unabridged edgar allan poe. i have decided that, because it is such an enormous work (1178 pages, small point type), and because i have finished about 650 pages of it, i have found the stories and poems within quite worthy of my time. in fact, i am even going to create, for perusal at your leisure, a listing of all of poe's works, including summaries and critiquing on my part. i really hope that you will all enjoy this resource, as it will take a lot of time to complete (and untold hours of research.) i've also got something else on my mind. is it just me, or is it extremely easy to tell when someone is lying. you can tell when someone is fishing for an answer and even when they do so in a split second. i can tell when al gore is lying. i can tell when george w. bush is lying. i can tell when my friends, my parents, my teachers, and the media are lying. it's really not so hard. just compare that which is said to a creditable fact. and as always, enjoy your reading at reticence.net. |
| desultory (des'-el-tor-ee) - random, inappropriate, irrelevant, not of or pertaining to a particular situation. characterized in a non-sequitur |
| quote: philosophy is utterly useless and fruitless, and, for this very reason, is the sublimest of all pursuits, the most deserving of our attention, and the most worthy of our zeal. ~hegel, as quoted in e.a. poe's the philosophy of furniture |
