year in review

My one-year anniversary in the Triangle may or may not be celebrated in a week. It all depends on what my mood is at the time. Stay tuned.

The prognosticators (I believe that me and God are the only ones in this case) would call this move a rip-roaring success. So it's pro and con time.

Pros:
I've made a remarkable amount of progress in my walk with God. I've met some amazing people.
And there's so much to do around here.
I have really grown as a person.
I've found a career direction.

Cons:
I haven't found a legitimate job here yet. This is going to become a legitimate issue. I wonder sometimes if I'm ever going to crack the good old boy wall here.
I can't get a date in this area. ;) People here don't seem to like socially awkward folk like myself.
It matters a bit too much where you went to school and what you do for a living..whoops, I'm being nitpicky...I would say that the pros strongly outweigh the cons.
I just hope I can stay here for a little while longer.

why I don't listen to mainstream music...

I don't listen to a lot of mainstream music. And I don't listen to a lot of mainstream rap.

Don't get me wrong. I consider rap as a secondary listening pleasure. But I'm not going to listen to songs that degrade African-Americans and contain lyrics that glorify sex, violence, the importance of money above everything else, and Satanism.

Yes, Satanism.

Some of you may have heard of the Illuminati before (fyi, they are a secret society that allegedly controls most, if not all, of the major media and music outlets of the world, among other things). Some would debate their existence, but I'm not going to argue this here.

Instead, I'm going to pass on some YouTube links that argue that most mainstream music are full of Satanic references and hints toward the New World Order/Endtimes theory. It's 13 parts long, so I would get a snack and click on the link when it says "To Be Continued"..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DikoLMfmEge

if that doesn't work, go to YouTube and search for the The Music Industry Exposed....Look it up for yourself

The validity of this can be debated. But if you ever read the book of Revelation, you would find this easier to believe...

twice-a-week edict

From here on in, I intend to keep myself sharp by posting on here at LEAST twice a month, if not more...I'm being pushed to the brink recently.

My V-Day Letter (Belated) to America-Why I'm Single

I've been gone for a month. It's because I've having a great time with with life. Work is kinda back and forth, but I understand the joy of having a vision, now, because I am the steward of one. Church is good. My truck lives. I live.

Then I come across the Golden Child known as V-Day. I saw the kids at the RC celebrate today, running around the halls with all their abundant joy. I had to fight the notion to say in my heart that Valentine's was irrelevant. But I've never really embraced it.

I'm single. Flaming single. I have been in this state for all my life. sans two weeks. Laugh if you will. Why, you ask?? I could blame Fayettenam for my issue. I was overshadowed in college by golfers, athletes, the 9 to 1 male to female ratio and my own taste for beer. After I got out, I found myself overshadowed by the looming shadow of Fort Bragg. Eek!

And then there's the game issue. Laughing out loud. Haha.

And I'm pretty fickle when it comes to women. I've developed high standards. That disqualifies me from part of the population. If I'm not crazy about a girl, why go through it? The tempation of infidelity would loom larger...

Heck, marriage and valentines and all that jazz may never be in the cards for me. It's possible. I don't think that settling for less than the best isn't ideal!

Don't forget, Paul was single for the duration of his life. So was my good buddy Jesus ;).

So I hopefully have explained why I'm single. I did it all for you.

asperger's part 2: continued education

I've done some research on Asperger's syndrome over the past month (before the holidays distracted me) and I've tried to relate what I've found to what I've gone through in my life. I've mentioned some symptoms in part one, but I've just wanted to highlight some things that I relate to:

-Having a narrow set of interests in life

I fall into that category; I tend to narrow down my primary interests to sports, music that people of my shade of skin color wouldn't dare admit to being interested in, writing, and other things. If you try and ask me about something I don't care about, or if you ask about something that I care about but had just started following, you would run circles around me. Nowadays, I wouldn't care about what other people think about my interests, but at one time I hid them (or edited them in conversation) because I wanted to be liked.

-Social awkardness

Asperger's victims have trouble with eye contact, small talk, and generally keeping a good conversation with people. They have trouble with figuring out sarcasm, jokes, and the like. Personally, I've improved with social awkardness, but sometimes the sarcasm park still gets me.

-Worrying

This is something that Christians shouldn't do a lot of, but Aspies have a high tendency to both worry and keep their feelings inside. I sometimes worry, unfortunately.

-Bad body language in social situations

This is a difficult thing for Aspies to deal with and it certainly doesn't help you socially.

-Being too trusting of people

-Difficulty with dating and relationships

This is a separate column all together......

And so on..

In Part 3, I'll speak about illusions about Asperger's Syndrome.

new year's revolution

I'm going to return to my Asperger's Syndrome series (after being derailed by the holidays) but I'd like to share my New Year's Resolution.

(drumroll)

It's to simply mature as a person in Christ and grow into someone that could handle a better job, a career, a relationship, and everything that God has in store for me, in time.

God bless.

asperger's syndrome and life, part 1: opening statement

Since I moved to the Triangle, I've had an increasing desire to dig deeper into the intricacies of Asperger's Syndrome.

This is the difference that I have. I'm not going to run away from that. I did when I was an unbeliever. I won't now. Take it or leave it. God made me this way.

And the fact that I have it has driven me recently to volunteer with the Autism Society and other groups. I want to help people. I want to give back in any way possible.

That being said, I also want to know and understand the symptoms and how it affects my life. And I admit that the things that I've found (although I'm a little unsure of the accuracy) have bothered me. For example, people with Asperger's syndrome struggle with:

-Problems engaging in small talk (I am hit or miss on this)
-Problems with depression and anger
-Lack of empathy
-Unable to see things from the other's point of view
-According to one site, having difficulty with entering relationships and marriages, and I've read that Aspies have a divorce rate of about 80 percent.

Glad I have God's favor.

I want to discuss some of these issues later, so stay tuned.