The other day, I get an e-mail saying that I've been invited to join a Yahoo! club, something about the Church of the Antichrist. I thought, pretty cool, I'll go check it out. I didn't have to read very much to find out this is some kind of satanic thing, and me wanting to be Mr. Anti-religion, I joined. I thought, "Cool. A group of people tired of right-wing christianity telling us what we should and should not, must and must not believe and such." It felt kind of freeing, not having a religion crammed down my throat. Then a message, presumabely from the club founder is posted titled "The Definitions Of A Satanist 999". Ok, this should be interesting. Let's see if I fit any categories, and I start reading. "You must support Satanism 999 as a real Religion and not some pseudo-anti-religion! Satanism must become Satanism 999! As a real religion, you must accept Satan as a real divinity within yourself or creation! Therefore, you must accept the term Satanist 999!" Ok, um hello! I thought we hated organized religion because they crammed it down our throats. Guess it wasn't what was being crammed, but who was doing the cramming.

Like I'm going to let to one psycho religious fanatic tell me what to do by telling me not to let some other psycho religious fanatic tell me what to do. This organized religion bullshit isn't too organized I guess. "Think for yourself, do not let others tell you what to do! Listen to me, do not let others tell you what to do." Um...didn't you just tell me what to do? Thanks Oral, I'll just go sit over here in the corner and actually utilize my human gift of free will and thought. [enter religious diety here] forbid that the mindless automotons who actually follow these assholes have a synapse fire on their own and cause actual thought. The bottom just might drop out of the industry. Because that's what it's become, an industry. Religion is no longer a belief system, it's a business.

While my parents were down last week, my father took the wife and I to get new glasses. There's a place down here (hell, they could be everywhere) called For Eyes that has a special, 2 pair of glasses for $99. We called and they said that they would split the two pair between husband and wife. Aww, wasn't that nice. Anyway, the closest place was down past Oakland Park Blvd. in Ft. Lauderdale which is about a 20 minute or more drive on US1. On the way down, my father notices a large structure on the western side of the highway and says "Is that [such and such] church?" I had no fuckin' clue and I told him such, except I didn't say fuckin'.

Anyway, turns out that this massive building is the church of some Baptist Minister that my parents see on TV some and listen to on the christian radio station back home. I mean, this place was huge. The "steeple" had to be about 5 stories high. As we drove by it heading south and then again heading north, I had to fight every urge to say shit. Stuff like, "Your hard earned offerings at work" or "Business must be booming". I knew it would piss my dad off, however, and he and my mom did a lot for us while they were down so I just shut up. But I don't get it. How can these people expect us to take them seriously when they have places like that?

"Well, a bigger church holds more people. The more people it holds, the more people we can bring to god." Ok, well then, why not make the church wider or longer? Why does it have to have a bunch of little narrow bits that are 5 stories tall that you know no one uses? And why do people have to be led to god? I thought she was omnipotent and omnipresent? If someone actually needs god, doesn't she know it? Isn't she already there? Does god work better in church than in public? Is it the acoustics or something? Why can't a person who truly believes, a person who has true faith be saved in a garage, or a living room? Why do they have to be in church to be saved? And why does being saved in a specific church make you a member of that church? When did religion become like a gang? "Yo, yo, yo dawg. Them fuckin' methodists have been gettin' on my nerve, yo. When dey gone realize that the baptist way of life is the only way, G?"

Oooooooooookkaaaaaaaay. Enough of that.

Sorry to all of my readers for being so spotty with updates lately. Last week, with my parents down, I wasn't in the office enough to really do anything and I couldn't really do it at home where my mom was getting on our computer some. Then, this week, I've been focusing on my checkride re-exam, but now, I'm back and I'll try to keep up more often. Ok? Well, tonight the wife and I are going to hit the sushi place, and then we're going to see The Mummy Returns to celebrate my newly gained pilot status. If you smeeeeelll, what the Scorpion King is cookin'! I think next entry, I'm going to talk about Chris, the guy I mention at the end of this entry who sometimes made acting a real pain in the ass. Stay tuned true 'Bearlievers!!