Busy Nothings

   Yisrayl Hawkins  predicted that June 12'th was to be the beginning of the end of the world.  Of course, Armageddon did not begin last Thursday, nor did it all the other days that he had prophisied to be the end of what we know of as Earth.  Every time I hear of another of these Doomsday predictions I laugh because no one is supposed to know when it will happen.  Matthew 24:42-44 states: 

" 42"Therefore ^(BC)be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.

 43"But be sure of this, that ^(BD)if the head of the house had known ^(BE)at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

 44"For this reason ^(BF)you also must be ready; for ^(BG)the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will. 

     I've never understood people who are duped into believing these yahoos who claim to know the hour and the day it will occur, even the Jesus Himself said we weren't supposed to know.  Following these false prophets is to me, a form of doubting God - just another way of showing a lack of faith in Him and more so in mankind.  Recent events have reminded me of just such another time when many people fell for the ficticious prophesising of a handful of nutjobs, almost to the detriment of both my eternal soul and my mental well-being.

    As children, many of us were put to bed with our parents telling us wonderful tales of three bears, fairies, ugly ducks that grew up to become glorious swans, and other light, affirming fare.  My life was much the same until mid-late 1988.  I was eight years old and as innocent as a newborn lamb.  Growing up in church, I had learned the child's "Now I Lay Me.." prayer.  I knew all about Jesus and most other people and stories of the Bible.  I was beginning to get to that point where I was aware of my own need to ask forgiveness of my own sins and ask Jesus to come into my life, but I wasn't really quite there.

     Enter Edgar C. Whisenant, then fifty-six, a retired NASA rocket engineer living in Little Rock, Arkansas, who published a paperback booklet titled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 88, as well as several other would-be prophets who claimed the Rapture would occur in 1988.  I don't remember much about that time, except for the fact that we started going to night services at church more often, as well as day services, and that it seemed many people were making professions of faith around Labor Day

     My own mother, a supposed paragon of faith, fell for this, as well as many other people, I assume.  Suddenly she became horribly frightened for my soul, in a very demented way, and worried that I would be left behind.  At night, she would creep into my room and tell me all the horros of the tribulation, how Christians would be caught up in the Rapture.  I got to the point where I was afraid to fall asleep for fear that Jesus would come out of the Eastern sky.  Then, she somehow strongarmed me into visiting with the youth/children's director and I was talked though the steps to become a Christain.  The problem was, it wasn't my personal choice.  I had no idea what I was doing, and went through the next six years sort of thinking that I was saved, but in reality I knew I wasn't.  I believe in God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and thankfully at the age of 14 I finally realized my own need for salvation.

     I accept that there's a lot about my mother that I don't understand, but I know that I'll never understand why she threw everything she had been taught - everything she had REALLY read in the Bible to the wind to believe some mere man's off-the-wall prediction.  To this day I still can't really believe that she would come to my room at night and tell me such horrible things, and I hate to think how she forced me into some admission of faith, when she should have known that's not how a person should lead their child to Christ.  She took the hellfire and brimstone sermons to a whole new level then.

     It's a wonder I'm not more screwed up than I am.  It's really God's work that I'm not, and I can't help but wonder about the mental stability of children of parents who fall for all or most of these predictions.  When these "prophesies" are pronounced, everyone should always fall back on what they know about God and also honestly consider if God would want them to go to such measures. 

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Yesterday afternoon, I was taking Lucy for a walk around the subdivision before Bart and I left for an AA baseball game. I used to people always stopping me and telling me what a pretty, sweet dog I have. (We joke that no one has ever told us that we have an ugly dog or an ugly car) Anyway, we walked by this one house, and the man there said/asked, "Nice dog."

My original assumption was that he was telling me that she was a nice dog, so I told him, "Thank you."

He said, "No. Is it a NICE dog, not grrrrr," putting his hands up in some fierce, ridiculous manner.

I giggled a little and told him, "She's a very nice dog." I started to explain that the only living thing that Lucy attacks are bugs, but then I thought that I didn't really care what he thought and went on my way with my goofy dog who was wanting to shake hands and had her usual sweet, goofy grin on her face. Five minutes later we were back on our street, and she was getting all sorts of love from our VERY elderly, nice next-door neighbors who were complementing her because she's so pretty, nice, and quiet. That one man obviously isn't a dog lover and/or has no history with goldens.

On a lighter note, we brought home some bobble-heads from the baseball game, and Bart has some fun with Lucy and them:

    According to TV Week, "On average, the networks are off the mark by 10% from last year in total viewers and off 17% in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic."  So, in short, May Sweeps, were a bust.  This news doesn't really surprise me though, because in my opinion the television as we've known it for the past fifty-sixty years is in the process of digging its own grave, and I don't believe that it's just the five broadcast networks.  I think that for the most part, cable networks are alienating their own core audiences.

    Throughout the Eighties and Nineties, as more cable networks were created, many were started with a certain niche, their own special genre, and they would air shows in which the subject could be viewed as under the umbrella of their certain genre.  The History Channel, now just History, focused on shows with a historical context.  The Discovery Channel was created to help viewers learn about the world around them.  TV Land was supposed to expand on the Nick at Nite of the eighties that aired reruns of classic TV shows like Bewitched, The Donna Reed Show, My Three Sons, The Patty Duke Show, and so many other wonderful shows of yesteryear - as well as the wonderfully nostalgic Retromercials. 

    It seems that today though, most of our niche cable networks have strayed from what brought them their core viewers to begin with.  Discovery received so much flack that they've adopted a policy of returning to their roots.  I only wish History and TV Land would do the same.  Both networks have been replacing their good programming with reality crap.  We get enough reality from almost every other network, not to mention the broadcast networks.  I don't want to see I Pity the Fool, High School Reunion, Ice Road Truckers, Ax Men, or Monster Quest. I also don't want to see Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition or any other show aired in the past ten years on TV Land.  I want to learn when I watch History.  I miss "The Hitler Channel."  I used to love "Bloody Old England Week."  Something is terribly wrong with things when last week I watched VH1 for the Documentary Sex:  The Revolution, a purely historical show, while History probably aired something related to music.

    Since what I want to see is no longer being aired in favor of what many consider to basically be crap, I choose to turn off my TV.  Instead I will read a book or do what many people my age are doing, watching things online, via You Tube, Hulu, Joost, and so many other wonderful services that let me choose what to watch, when I want to watch it.  There is also always DVR/PVR if a station actually airs something worthwhile, AND if they don't block DVR / PVR as NBC did recently.  Boy, that was a dumbass mistake, but it is the network that pulled all of its shows from iTunes but took them to the Zune Marketplace.  As I read somewhere, "2,000.000 Zunes sold since 2006..."  compared to the 140 million unites sold by Apple.  I, as an owner of both an 8 GB nano and 8 GB iPod Touch, will just not pay to watch NBC content, but will watch it on Hulu, the one good decision NBC has made in this age of digital everything.

    In my opinion, TV Land should create spin-off networks focused solely on certain decades.  There should be a TV Land 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and Current channel.  The History Channel should create a Current Events channel to air crap like Ax Men and Ice Road Truckers just as they created The Military History Channel, even though I can't get that because as of now, we're not paying Cox Cable for Digital anything.  We're waiting on At&t Uverse to debut here in NW Arkansas this fall.  I'm thrilled Cox is going to get some real competition besides Dish Network and Direct TV.  Basically, television executives need to pull their heads out of that place where the sun doesn't shine and listen to the public, or they'll continue to lose the battle.  If I, a twenty-eight-year-old married woman with a decent income (hello desirable demographic) am disgruntled, what about the rest of the world?

    This morning I experienced a moment of complete serenity.  It was a brief, fleeting moment, but nonetheless it was too sweet, to nice, too perfect to remain forever.  Such moments would cease to be important if they were constant, and I suppose that we would become a very spoiled people.

    The sun was just cracking the dark shell of night along the outer edges of the horizon.  Birds, always searching for that early worm were beginning to chirp.  Lucy was actually curled up on her own bed in our room.  Bart was for once politely sleeping; neither snoring nor jumping to catch his breath.  I, I had to clear my congested nose despite knowing my alarm would sound in three quarters of an hour, beckoning me to reluctantly begin my day.

    I knew the risks of getting out of bed at such a time.  Lucy would most likely catch me going to the bathroom and either follow me around, waking up to where I would have to send her to the backyard, or she would steal my place in the bed.  Neither occurred this time though, most likely because I fed her a portion of her breakfast and took her outside to potty around three when I too had to use the facilities.  Instead, her sleepy head followed my form as I completed my task and returned to bed.  Then, however she decided to join us in bed.

    I was worried that she had decided that it was time for us to get up for the day at first.  She had to lick both of our faces as usual, and I worried that I would be receiving that constant facial attention from her that indicates a need to potty.  Again she surprised me by just lying down on the king-sized pillow that I curl up on my side with that  props my head so I can breathe and my legs so they don't touch (I can't sleep with my bony legs touching), with her head resting on my chest and against my cheek.

    We both closed our eyes, and I knew she fell asleep by the soft, sweetness of her breathing.  I fell into a light sleep as well, something I sometimes have difficulty doing when Lucy decides to sleep on me.  We remained in the tranquil, peaceful position until that looming alarm sounded.  Lucy lifted her head and looked to the alarm.  I reached over, turned it off, and did something I never do:  I let my head sink back into the pillow, and Lucy put her head back on my chest.  For just a few minutes more we enjoyed this moment of sweet serenity.

    Today was sort of an odd day for me.  Usually things in my life are pretty black and white.  Either things are great, and I'm happy or the opposite.  Today was different though.  I was neither happy nor unhappy.  I didn't feel great, but I didn't necessarily feel bad either.  I just was today.  I existed, and that pretty much sums everything up   To some I think my general malaise was probably off-putting.  I didn't intend for that to happen.  I guess I'm supposed to always be upbeat and positive in my wry, sarcastic way that makes me me, but sometimes I just am.  I'm neither this nor that for no reason in particular, except for the fact that I've felt horrible tired the past few days- more so than usual.  I actually caught myself "resting" my eyes a little too much while sitting in traffic yesterday.

    I suppose I'm in need of a vacation or a long weekend.  I'm actually getting a long weekend this week, but there will be no time for rest or relaxation.  The following weekend we're going to travel to Greenwood then down to Cedar Lake for my family reunion.  I want to go to the reunion, but I also seriously want some rest.  Even Memorial Day Weekend has been hijacked by Bart because he's enlisted a friend to help him tile around his shower.

    Maybe that's a part of my problem.  Maybe I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, and deep in my subconscious that depresses me.  Or, maybe cloudy, rainy, cold, stormy days just affect my health and attitude more than I wish they did. I don't know.  Maybe I'm just getting to the point in my life where I know I'm needed more at home than at any job or profession. 

    Sometimes I'm stuck with the irony of life.  You know, not like the song, "Ironic," but real irony - things that just make you shake your head such as:

    We're always bombarded via TV and radio by the government to call to have the ground marked for utility lines before we start digging and cutting into the ground.  However, it's always people working for the government whom do not call to have the ground marked, therefore resulting in some disaster or another.  Case in point, today at work, city employees were digging up nearby Mountain Street and cut our fiber cables, thus taking both of our stations off of the air in all forms and fashions for six hours - resulting in substantial loss of revenue and viewership.  I imagine City of Fayetteville employees will soon have to sit through hours of training on how to pick up the phone and dial Arkansas One Call in order to prevent such a STUPID mistake again.

    That's sort of like a few years ago when the forest service started several "Controlled Burns" in New Mexico that ended up becoming huge, out-of-control, destructive wildfires.

    Do you ever wonder if some people are born with their heads up their considerable arses?  I obviously do, but what really amazes me is that it seems to me that the majority of brown-heads, as I just decided to call them, seem to always be a part of our government.   Any wonder then that our country is quickly going down the crapper?  Word to the three moronic people running for president:  pull your heads out and actually listen to people with common sense.

    I just read an article that declared it the 30'th anniversary of the first SPAM email.  At first inclination, I thought of that date as a long, long time ago - early seventies.  Then I looked at the date in question:  1978.  It was not so long ago, actually - two years before I was born.  I turned twenty-eight yesterday. Suddenly thirty doesn't seem as old and long ago as it did Wednesday.

    Also I apparently broke all the rules of birthdaydom yesterday, according to Emma, my three-and-a-half-year-old niece.  I didn't have a cake.  I didn't open any presents, and I did not have a giant, inflatable, jumping apparatus in my back yard.  She's terrible upset by this, and it will probably take her an entire day to get over it.