I Promise Most of it isn't Political

In the 2012 election, I stayed up late on pins and needles and was too depressed the next morning to get out of bed. This time, I simply didn't care about the result because I knew that, barring some miracle, I would hate it. So I'm not going to stress about it. Some of Trump's outlined policies for the first one hundred days look good to me. The rest are terrifying. At least there's no anti-vaccine crap on the horizon yet. The only bright side is that in order for him to win his opponent had to lose, and with any luck her political career is over. His never should have started. Obviously I didn't know what I was talking about when I said months ago that he wasn't going to be the nominee. I could go on and on about this but we've all had enough of that, haven't we? Yes, we have. Anyway, I'm not going to stress and if worst comes to worst I'm not married to the idea of staying in this country for the rest of my life. I did some research and found that some of the friendlier Middle Eastern countries have a surprising level of economic freedom.

But since I was obsessing over the election earlier, I forgot to post this back when it would have been more relevant. It's a friend from back home wearing what I think is the coolest Halloween costume ever. They called it Khardharsan Zuud, which is apparently Mongolian for "nightmare". I'll take their word for it.

Now want to see something really stupid? I knew you did. Here you go.

There you have it, folks, God isn't real because of atoms and planets. That makes perfect sense because reasons. Oh, and if you're going to attempt to demonstrate the perceived superiority of science over religion you could do better than to perpetuate an inaccurate representation wrongly believed by laypeople in general and creationists in particular. The timeline of human evolution looks nothing like that. It's more like this:

And this is the real relationship between humans and apes:

Contributing to the current discussion on sexual assault that surely has nothing to do with any political figures, Cracked.com recently published this very enlightening article on "7 Reasons So Many Guys Don't Understand Sexual Consent". The article gives Han Solo in "The Empire Strikes Back" as one of its examples of entertainment media portrayals that disregard the principle of consent. I kind of pointed this out last December, but didn't realize it was actually a factor in shaping real attitudes because any guy who isn't Harrison Ford who aspires to be like Han Solo has delusions of grandeur bigger than the third Death Star - sorry, I mean Starkiller Base. I also saw a couple of articles about inadvertently creepy things that "nice guys" do, and since people have often called me a "nice guy", apparently thinking I don't know that it's a thinly veiled insult, I figured I should read them. Neither was very helpful. I haven't done any of the things they listed because I'm not brain-dead.

Oh, and Mackenzie had tickets to a ski movie that she couldn't use because she was out of town. Apparently ski movies are a thing. So she asked if I wanted them and I could go on a date with someone. I had to think about it for a few hours before I remembered that I would rather shoot myself in the kneecaps. Besides, I've made it almost a year without asking any girls out and it would be a shame to give up now.

The Mormon Section

As much as I hate Mormon culture, most of the problems I've encountered with it and most of the people who have made me want to apostatize have been on the internet, not in any local congregation. I deal with a lot of pages and groups and their respective admins and members as I try to get my own foot in that door, and sometimes don't see eye-to-eye with them. Sometimes they downright disgust me. When several pages that knew better shared Rodney Meldrum's pseudoscience about Book of Mormon DNA, I protested, and their private responses were basically "Yes, I know this is a load of crap, but look how popular it is." Of course the fact that such things are popular because so many Mormons are gullible and scientifically illiterate enough to like and share them disgusts me too, but at least that doesn't evidence a lack of integrity.

There is a group called "1 Million Mormons on Fb" (which, despite having existed for at least seven years, has well under one twenty-fifth of that amount). I've clashed with some people there too, particularly those who denounce articles as anti-Mormon without bothering to read them first and those who think I'm an apostate because I don't see eye-to-eye with them on cultural matters. I know at least one of the admins isn't my biggest fan notwithstanding I never intentionally broke any rules, including the vague "common sense and decency" clause. The other day, subsequent to not breaking any rules or posting anything that should have been controversial to anyone, I was banned out of the blue. Confused, I inquired of some admins, most of whom proceeded to ignore me. The only response I got was from Josie Meechan Barnshaw, who said, "Hi Christopher, I believe you posted something political, which is against the group's rules."

To which the obvious response, though not the one I chose, would have been "Are you ------- kidding me?" I did not post anything political. I did not post anything that a person with a functioning brain and a first grade English reading level could possibly mistake for anything political. I certainly did not post any "DISCUSSION OF PARTY POLITICS OR CANDIDATES", which is what the rules actually forbid (caps in original). So the only conceivable origin of this accusation appears to be a deliberate, calculated lie by one of the admins. Which one? Was it W. Stephen Svedin, Brad Hill, Christine Sheets Bates, Donald E. Neighbors (though I know him from another setting and don't think he would do such a thing), Josie Meechan Barnshaw, Dan Owen, Cheri Murphy, Sheila Blume DuBois, Nikita Eden, or Toni Martin Owen? I have my suspicions about which one it was, but since I have no evidence, I shan't accuse him/her because that would lower me to his/her level. Of course I'll probably never know since he/she is too much of a coward to acknowledge my existence after banning me and making up a reason.

So anyway, I told Josie that I hadn't posted anything political and showed her the last thing I had posted which was not political, and in response she proceeded to ignore me. After a few attempts to rejoin the group I was blocked by someone or other. Now I know how the impoverished Zoramites felt when the self-righteous Zoramites kicked them out of the synagogues. Assuming, that is, that they weren't so much distraught as really pissed off. Anyway, if I needed a clearer message that I don't belong and am not welcome among Mormons of this ilk, I have one now. This is why I like Robert Kirby so much. Also, I know it might have been socially unacceptable for me to list everyone's names like that and I don't care.

Jordin Sparks - One Step at a Time

At an institute dance in February last year I heard a song that I thought was impossibly beautiful, but didn't remember any of the words so I couldn't find it afterward. I requested a list of the songs they had played and they sent it to me and I checked all the ones I didn't recognize but it wasn't there. I gave up on it. Then, this week, I discovered that I had gotten it in my possession without even trying, on one of the albums I purchased during the Hastings clearance sale before they went out of business (may they rest in peace). It made my week. I was only really familiar with two Jordin Sparks songs, and between this and the rest of her two albums that I have I'm a fan now, and an even bigger fan after seeing what she had to say the day after the election:

Many people might think I'm overreacting to call this song impossibly beautiful, but to each their own.