Yahoo! News - Texas Church Tries Guns for Roses on Valentines

Obviously, Dallas is having some trouble with the concept of Valentines days.

Instead of giving you lover flowers and candy, groups in Dallas want you to give up your porn and guns...

Yahoo! News - Texas Church Tries Guns for Roses on Valentines

www.purerestoration.com

Friday Five: The Valentine's Edition

From Roganda

Hi everyone! Thanks for letting me join...I think this whole Friday 5 idea is a cool one. Sorry for my general slowness in posting my answers, and for my tardiness today.

Here's the question:
So Valentine's Day is coming up, and my impulse to be timely has overcome my dislike of mush, so today's question concerns love.
"Love is omni-inclusive, progressively exquisite, understanding and tender and compassionately attuned to other than self." R. Buckminster Fuller.

What are five ways that people in your life (any relation: child, parent, spiritual advisor, friend, etc. etc.) have demonstrated through their actions that they love you--whether they meant to or not? (bonus points for interesting, unusual, unexpected or especially subtle examples).


1. My wife married me. OK, this may seem to be a rather obvious choice, but sometimes there is a reason answers are obvious. Up to a year before I met my wife, I was pretty sure I would be a permanent bachelor, with very little evidence to prove otherwise. A few months before I met my wife, I figured I could date people I liked, but not really loved, and I thought that was better than nothing. Then I met my wife, and my life improved tremendously.

2. If you have never been on the receiving end of a smile and running hug from my son, then you have not lived. He has the ability to totally encompass you with affection and love, shutting out everything else. The boy practically radiates love (of course, he is also pretty good at radiating mischievousness and occasionally, evil).

3. I went on a bachelor trip (a week-long trip with my three buds instead of going to a strip bar like normal people). On this trip we stopped at Roswell, NM and I bought a tiny alien doll for my daughter, then 2. She loved the doll. It was the first toy she ever named (Bee-Bee) and she carried it constantly for over a year. Even today, 3 years later, she occasionally asks to go to sleep with it and takes it on trips. Her love for that doll, something that I got her, showed me how much a two year old loved me. Not only did she love on me, but she loved on the things I gave her.

4. My parents taking off work and taking me to auditions as a child. They encouraged me 100% in acting and filmmaking. I never once heard worries about how I would make money, or get a stable life or anything like it. My parents supported me 100% in my acting. They got me an agent, they got me headshots, they drove me all over the state for auditions and shoots. They always were ready with advice (often times wrong advice because they did not understand the industry, but that was ok) and encouragement. I know of few parents who would so easily and readily support their children in such a risky and time consuming pursuit.

5. All of my friends who have help me make movies. Movies are long, arduous, painfully dull things to create, and I have had the good fortune to make a few thanks to the willing services of good friends. People who gave up sleep, rest, a decent meal and many other more entertaining things to help me make movies. Each bit of help was nothing but an act of friendship and love.

Other F5 participants are: Melissa, Adam, Merideth, Will, Gina, Gord, Adrienne, Marvin, Rob, Laura, Jon, Ritu, Julie, Morgaine, Rik, Fionna, Ray and Mojave Sixty-Six.

Lots of cloning stuff in the news.

And I say Huzzah!

In fact, i wish these people would hurry up.

My plan for immortality depends on being able to clone myself and grow a 20 year old Will for me to put my aged brain into.

This means that unless they figure out a way to increase the speed at which a clone ages, I need to start growing my clone in about 15 to twenty years so that it will be ready when I need it.

So, please tell these people to hurry the heck up.

Friday 5

This week curtesy of Ray.

Knowing the folks on the list, something similar to this has probably already been asked. Still, it's what I came up with after letting it simmer for the week so, here goes: My wife sits and reads all the time, and I used to as well. I've wondered why I don't anymore, and I think it's that since High School G/T classes, I haven't been forced to. I miss it. My question is, which books would you miss in my situation? More accurately, which 5 books have made the biggest impression on who you are, and why?

I notice that I can't list books. I have to list series of books, because really, they are all one big book anyway.

I notice that there is one overarching theme to these books and that is the battle vs Evil. I envy these adventures because life seems so much easier when the bad guy is trying to kill you than say cutting off your elecricity or overcharging you for tacos.

1. The Lord of The Rings. JRR Tolkien. I read these about every year, and never fail to enjoy losing myself in Tolkien's world. My world view was shaped by these books more than any other, including the Bible. It has affected how I look a society, at people, at theology and probably just about everything else. In fact, Christianity's obsession with sin and redemption do not make near as much sense to me as Tolkien's ideas about evil as an internal response to an outside corruptor that must be challenged.

2. The Future Histories of Robert Heinlein. My love for Heinlein knows few bounds. And his books that fall loosely under the Future History stories are my favorite. Time Enough for Love, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, The Number of the Beast, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and I Shall Fear No Evil. All astounding books whose characters I am totally fasinated with and would emulate in every respect were I a super genius. The characters of the book and the society they create for themselves is where I would live if I had my choice.

3. Harry Potter and the's... I love these books. I read them all the time. They strike such a chord in me that I can not help but become wrapped up in their lives. I root for them as adolesants, I want them to grow to their full potential. It is parental. I think I put my kids in the roles of Harry and Ron and Herminone, instead of putting myself in those roles, and I get to cheer for them as a Dad.

4. The Discworld Novels. Terry Pratchett is a comedy God. Really. His satire is biting and relevant and his love for the absurdity of life is present in every word. And DEATH is the best character of the whole thing, which is about the kindest thing about death I will ever say. If dying means playing Trivial Pursuit for a few hours with this guy, then it may not be half bad.

5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, et al. 42 being the meaning of life makes perfect sense. Especially, when I am the king of 42, and can read what dominoes people have 4 tricks into a match.


Other F5 participants are: Melissa, Adam, Merideth, Will, Chris, Gina, Gord, Adrienne, Nanette, Marvin, Rob, Laura, Jon, Ritu, Julie, Morgaine, Morgaine, Rik, Fionna, Roganda, Spidra and Mojave Sixty-Six.