Happy 6 monthiversary to me and Sarah…. 
yay… (Technically we’ve been together 6 months… but in reality it’s been about 10 or 11…. heh heh…)
Mood: Whatchu talkin bout Willis? 
Music: Weezer – Dope Nose
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HOLY CRAP!!! MR. ROGERS DIED TODAY!!! AcK! I totally copied this from Zvanoizu’s site… check it out…
‘MR ROGERS’ DIES OF CANCER AT 74
by Todd Spangler
PITTSBURGH (Feb. 27) – Fred Rogers, who gently invited millions of children to be his neighbor as host of the public television show ”Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” for more than 30 years, died of cancer early Thursday. He was 74.
Rogers died at his Pittsburgh home, said family spokesman David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on the show.
Rogers had been diagnosed with stomach cancer sometime after the holidays, Newell said.
”He was so genuinely, genuinely kind, a wonderful person,” Newell said. ”His mission was to work with families and children for television. … That was his passion, his mission, and he did it from day one.”
From 1968 to 2000, Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister, produced the show at Pittsburgh public television station WQED. The final new episode, which was taped in December 2000, aired in August 2001, though PBS affiliates continued to air back episodes.
Rogers composed his own songs for the show and began each episode in a set made to look like a comfortable living room, singing ”It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood,” as he donned sneakers and a zip-up cardigan.
”I have really never considered myself a TV star,” Rogers said in a 1995 interview. ”I always thought I was a neighbor who just came in for a visit.”
His message remained simple: telling his viewers to love themselves and others. On each show, he would take his audience on a magical trolley ride into the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, where his puppet creations would interact with each other and adults.
Rogers did much of the puppet work and voices himself.
Rogers taught children how to share, deal with anger and even why they shouldn’t fear the bathtub by assuring them they’ll never go down the drain.
During the Persian Gulf War, Rogers told youngsters that ”all children shall be well taken care of in this neighborhood and beyond – in times of war and in times of peace,” and he asked parents to promise their children they would always be safe.
”We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility,” he said in 1994. ”It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’
”Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
Rogers came out of broadcasting retirement last year to record four public service announcements for the Public Broadcasting Service telling parents how to help their children deal with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
”They don’t understand what an anniversary is, and if they see the tragedy replayed on television, they might think it’s happening at that moment,” he said.
Rogers’ show won four Emmy Awards, plus one for lifetime achievement. He was given a George Foster Peabody Award in 1993, ”in recognition of 25 years of beautiful days in the neighborhood.”
At a ceremony marking the show’s 25th anniversary in 1993, Rogers said, ”It’s not the honors and not the titles and not the power that is of ultimate importance. It’s what resides inside.”
The show’s ratings peaked in 1985-86 when about 8 percent of all U.S. households with televisions tuned in. By the 1999-2000 season, viewership had dropped to about 2.7 percent, or 3.6 million people.
One of Rogers’ red sweaters hangs in the Smithsonian Institution.
As other children’s programming opted for slick action cartoons, Rogers stayed the same and stuck to his soothing message.
Rogers was born in Latrobe, 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. He was ordained in 1962 with a charge to continue his work with children and families through television.
He studied early childhood development at the University of Pittsburgh’s graduate school and consulted for decades with the late Dr. Margaret McFarland, an eminent child development expert at the university. The show examined the tribulations of childhood, including anger, fear, even a visit to the dentist.
Off the set, Rogers was much like his television persona. He swam daily, read voraciously and listened to Beethoven. He once volunteered at a state prison in Pittsburgh and helped set up a playroom there for children visiting their parents.
Rogers was an unseen puppeteer in ”The Children’s Corner,” a local show he and Josie Carey launched at WQED in 1954. In seven years of unscripted, live television on the show, he developed many of the puppets used in ”Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” including King Friday XIII, Daniel Striped Tiger and Curious X the Owl.
Rogers accepted an offer to develop his own 15-minute show in Canada. He brought the show, called ”Misterogers,” back to Pittsburgh and in February 1968 began its public broadcasting debut.
Rogers’ gentle manner was the butt of some comedian’s jokes. Eddie Murphy parodied him on ”Saturday Night Live” in the 80’s with his ”Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood,” a routine Rogers found funny and affectionate.
Rogers is survived by his wife, Joanne, a concert pianist; two sons and two grandsons.
AP-NY-02-27-03 0702EST
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World’s Longest Blog
I wrote part of this post on Anna’s site in a comment log…. and thought it was good stuff for here… so…. umm… HERE! Post 2.0 (Now with more content! Colors don’t fade!!!)
I was raised Catholic and am now a Christian… I’ve been Christian for 12 years now… I’m actually on staff at a christian church! The point is, many of my relatives are still hardcore catholics… I KNOW that a few of them are saved… they’ve accepted Christ as their savior and believe that he was God in the flesh and died on the cross for their sins… they believe he was risen in the flesh and now is in heaven… So yeah… some of their doctrine is screwy… some of their traditions are twisted… but the core beliefs remain intact. THAT is what is vital in the end. HECK, look at all the denominations of Christianity! Protestant, Baptist, Methodist, Penticostal… SO FAR APART in rules and regulations… but the core belief in Jesus alone remains intact.
Yeah… I think the Catholic church started pure… but Satan can easily take something like that and twist it JUST far enough from the truth to make people follow blindly and worship other Gods apart from Jesus… I know of some Catholics that pray to Mary and the “saints” more than they pray to God! I say “saints” becuase the Bible tells us that all who follow Christ are deemed “Saints.” Mary and the saints were just people… God used them… in amazing ways… but they’re dead and with Him now… just as we will be someday… Mary doesn’t have Godly powers to hear prayers…. Only God. Mary can’t “intercess” with Christ since she’s his mother…. Only God. But if Satan can get people buying into those beliefs… If people stop talking to God and put their faith in dead people…. EVEN if we start confessing to LIVING people (i.e. confession to priests)… …. Satan has won.
The very REASON God came in the form of Christ was to break the barriers between God and Man. He tossed the old covenant of ONLY priests talking with God…. Only Priests asking for forgiveness… The AMAZINGLY HUGE temple curtain was ripped in two the instant Christ died on the cross…. WHY? TO SYMBOLIZE THAT WE DON’T NEED IT ANYMORE! No longer were common men and women forbidden to commune with God. We are ALL able to now. Yet the Catholic church holds to confession…. …. to salvation by works… … “Say 4 hail mary’s and 2 our fathers and you are forgiven!” CRAP! How can blind repetitious rambling be the true aching desire of your heart crying out to God???? Man it’s so ironic…. What we’ve turned prayer into…
Matthew 6… 5″And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Then it goes on to give the example of the Lord’s Prayer… a passionate cry of the heart to know God and to have Him guide our steps… yet where do we hear this now? Repeated…. blindly… every week… by millions of people in churches around the world who don’t listen to the words they are speaking, yet think they are doing as God asked…. pathetic. This is AN EXAMPLE people…. The words aren’t what is important! The MEANING is what matters… Where is your heart? THAT is what God is after.
::Sigh:: It’s frustrating… I recently attended a catholic funeral of an old schoolmate… The whole funeral was lead in 4 repetitions of the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary’s… … I sat in awe and shock of the scene before me. I prayed alone….. “God…. is this what you desired of your people? Where’s the zeal? Where are the hearts of passion? WHO IN THIS CROWD IS REALLY SPEAKING TO YOU? IS ANYONE SINCERE?” I’m not doubting those prayers CAN be prayed in honest sincerity… but I guarantee they aren’t 99.9% of the time.
Man… I don’t know what more to say… I’ve talked to my family members… multiple times… I’ve tried to explain to them what the Bible says… that they are blatantly following doctrines made by man and not in the Bible… but they just smile and tell themselves that they are comfortable with their beliefs… They believe that Mary has magical healing powers…
There is a “Shrine to Mary the Holy Mother of God” thing in my hometown now… It’s been there a few years… It was made by a rich old woman who claimed to be a “Visionary” and she says that Mary appears to her regularly and thus she build this shrine to her… Catholics come from around the country… no exaggeration… to see this shrine. My own mother has gone to it and tells me that it’s “Ok becuase they have a shrine to Jesus too…” Granted… it’s smaller… and off to the side… but… hey… who’s counting?
SO anyway, this visionary claims that Mary visits her the first monday of every month or something like that… except NOT in the winter months because it’s too cold for us to be outside… … … Yeah… that sounds like Mary and not some reasoning of the 80 year old lady.. … … and nobody can see Mary… just this lady…. So my grandparents are hooked… My grandpa claims to have had really bad pain in his back and one sunday he was praying at this shrine and his pain moved up his body and left him… Let’s think… If YOU were Satan… and your goal was to twist truth JUST enough to get people worshipping things other than Jesus Christ… or God… say for example…. ohhh…. Mary. Wouldn’t it be EASY to cause physical pain and then take it away just at the right time to make someone think that Mary did it? … think about THAT for a while…
My cousin says that she is sure she’s getting into heaven now because this statue of Mary “signed her hand to keep her out of purgatory”…. but that only lasts until you wash your hand… … … (COME ON PEOPLE!?!?!??!) So my relatives and such have donated so much money to this shrine that there are now two angel statues at the front of the driveway…. they are the “Pirolli Angels” now… (My last name is Pirolli)… joy… I’m so happy to be part of this shrine… may it keep me out of purgatory… … (can ya smell the sarcasm yet?)
Not to mention that NONE …. I repeat… NONE of the afformentioned “Purgatory”, “Worshipping Mary”, or “Visions of Mary” are in the Bible…. … or even backed by Biblical stories… and what the crap is the “Signing my hand” crap???? COME ON!!!! IF YOU WANT TO KNOW GOD, SEEK HIM! HE IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!! “Behold I stand at the door and knock, anyone who hears can open the door and I will eat with him and he with me.” God is not hidden in a shrine somewhere… God is not revealed by visions of Mary to old ladies which no one else can see or hear… God is there… with you NOW! JUST FREAKIN TALK!
I guess the biggest shock to me is that in my lifetime… My short 20 years so far… I’ve seen SO MUCH FRUIT come from the lives of those who truly seek God…. There have been SO many miracles and good works… and Christ-like actions come from people who live out their faith EVERY DAY… They aren’t perfect… but they strive to be… in speech… in action… in thought…. THOSE people are the ones who show God working in their lives! Yet I watch Catholics every day… my relatives… my friends… who swear up a storm… curse everybody… go to church on Sunday… and live their own agendas the rest of the week… (I’m not saying there can’t be Christians who do this too… I know some…) But the main difference… I’ve yet to see God working in the lives of my Catholic family members… I’ve yet to see them pour out Agape love on others… to transform their lives… their very personalities and actions based on Christ-like principles in ways that only God can change you… No…. they just keep on living their lives….. and I wonder…. “How can you do that? How can you NOT have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ… the creator of our universe…. The God that wants to be your friend and father… to talk to you regularly… to transform you….. How can you justify your actions and go to your confessionals… say your repetitive prayers with NO feeling… and still think that you aren’t missing something?” My God…. Thank you for showing me who you really are…. My Best Friend… My Father… My Guide… Thank you.
Ignorance and blind faith… bother me…. a lot.
Mood: Frustrated with the world… But knowing I’m here for a reason. 
Music: An old worship song “I stand in awe of you”
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I’ve never been as happy as I am now…. ….. ever….
Which member of the Homestar Runner gang are you?
If you don’t know who this is… then go here: Homestarrunner.com and then to here eventually… StrongBad’s Email.
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Awww… Anna made me feel all good…. :
“Brent, I thank you for standing in the gap for me in my absence. It’s a priviledge to call you Brother, and I’m so glad for your friendship. You were a little hasty in backing down, considering you hit the nail RIGHT ON THE HEAD. ((… but you’re new, you’ll learn quickly about how things work here.)) There is no personal issue – it’s very public and sheer opinion, and that opinion wishes to discredit my faith, and has attempted to do so on many, many occasions. I appreciate people like you who hold to Truth – most don’t even know what it is – you are a testimony to the faith.” -Anna (See?)
Anywho… off to class!
Mood: AWAKE AND RESTED!
Music: Mercy Me – I Can Only Imagine
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total snowfall in the past 2 nights… 21 inches…. bah. Not that I’m against snow… but diggin out cars and walkin to class in it…. SUCKS!
Mood: So Happy TOGETHER…….
Music: The Turtles – So Happy Together! duh…
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So friday night on duty wasn’t so bad…. I had a relatively easy time… had one alcohol incident but the guys were extremely nice and co-operative so it wasn’t bad. I did that paperwork and was in my room by 1:45am to get to sleep. Just then, the fire alarm on the 8th floor started going off…. I grabbed my master key and ran downstairs before the whole tower’s alarm went off and people flooded the stairwells…. So I get to the bottom floor and yell to the RA’s down there that the alarm is going off and they already knew and were on the phone with the Hall Director on duty. Just then Officer Penrose shows up so he and I go up to the 8th floor and check it out… yeah… some drunken jerk…. or really sick psychotic jerk…. decided to commit aggrivated arsen and set a door on fire. They lit the door decorations on one door and burned a sign by the elevators…. So the fire was out when we got there cuz the guy that lived there smelled the smoke and put out the fires before the alarm even sounded. But none-the-less, his door was cooked.
THEN I got to spend the next hour keying into rooms with a member of the BGFD to look for people who stayed inside during the alarm cuz it was cold and windy…. and 2:00am… and I woke up one chick hugging a trash can…. she’d had quite a bit to drink… and I woke up some other dude and all I saw was his fro stickin up from the sheets… so I shake him and wake him up… and he whips the covers off and there’s his girlfriend in her underwear… So I advise them to put some pants on and meet me in the hall…. HAHAHA…. anyway…
The next 2 hours were spent writing up reports of things or people we found in violations during that alarm…. such as rooms filled with alcohol and underage residents…. or people sleeping in the building during the alarm…. blah blah blah…. Then we had fun instances of residents threatening us because we went in their room and now they are in trouble for having liquor and stuff…. they wouldn’t stop yelling…. police were called… Then we had some immature 20 year old girl who kept stealing markers from her floormates…. and throwing magnets at doors at 4am…. … why? I don’t know… But last I checked… she still had the markers in her room…. Way to go… glad we’re in college now…. I mistook this for pre-school for a minute there…
So at about 5am… after talking to fire marshalls and police…. and filing reports… and dealing with drunken jerks… I went to bed. BUT, I was so stressed out at that point that I didn’t fall asleep till 6:15am…. bah. Then I got up for work the next day, worked till 7:10pm, drove back in the freezing rain storm we’re gettin… got back to the building at 7:45pm and did “Fire Safety” room checks… (Ironic timing, eh?) That concluded at about 9:30, so I spent some time with my wonderful girlfriend whom I missed dearly. We ate dinner and hung out…. then she went to work at 12am, I talked to people online till 1am, and NOW I’m going to bed…. cuz see…. lol… I have to get up at 7:30am… scrape the 2 inches of ice off of my car (and Sarah’s if I can find it) and then get to work till 2:00pm. Then we have New Community from 3:00 practice till 6:00 service and it’s over at 7:30pm…. … … … Then I die. When I get UP from dying… I get to go to classes from 8am monday till 3:30pm then go pull over a mile of video cable through the conduits of the auditorium at CedarCreek… … … …. … … joy.
HOW AM I SURVIVING THIS???? I don’t know…. At least Sarah is here to brighten my days! OK… sleep.
Mood: Confused and looking around like I’m lost…
Music: Some worship song called “Jesus You Alone”
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Good Lord…. I don’t know that I’ve ever been as impressed by a Xanga site as I have by this one. Not because of graphics or any flashy animation… but because this woman is truly a woman of EXTREME Godly character and very high intelligence… THIS is how Xanga can be useful…. it can inspire thought provoking conversations and we can utilize it to grow as human beings… Nice work Anna… We appreciate it.
To all of you who are totally lost now… I’d like to thank GodKnight for this link to her site, and beyond that, if you want to read Anna’s site in-depth, read the “Spiritual Blogs” module on the left hand side towards the bottom…. they rock.
Now… I must get to bed… as it is almost 4am and I planned on being in bed 2 hours ago… then I found Anna’s site and got sucked in… …. so Xanga CAN be evil when not controlled…
Mood: Getting there (There being out of crazy schedule month)
Music: Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American
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Being busy with stressful stuff sucks…..
Mood: Poopy 
Music: Skillet – If You’re Thirsty
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So apparently Xanga now limits the number of Blogrings you can be a part of (to 3) unless you are premium (then you get 6)…. what’s up with that?!?!
I have 4… I guess that’s cuz I signed up for them before the limit hit…. that sucks… I wanted to join a simpsons ring too…
Mood: eh… can’t complain… wait… I just did! 
Music: Skillet – The Thirst Is Taking Over