Happy new year!

Alright, I know I'm over a week behind the curve, but I have a good excuse, which I will choose to keep to myself. Be still and know that I am Joe.

I had a very eventful last week of 2011 - I attended a youth camp in Durban, South Africa organised by the Botswana Union of the Seventh Day Adventist church. I was initially reticent about the prospect of going when Mother first asked me about it, but I later figured "fuck it, it's Durban, why the hell not?" In the end asides from all the Jesus-ness, the horrible rooms we were staying in and the all-veg diet, it really wasn't so bad. I got to see the sea for the first time, managed to buy a few books I've been yearning for while there and generally got to relax, unwind and refresh.

As for the content of the camp...well, it was your usual revival seminar fare. There were daily sermons and prayer sessions, as well as a few workshops scattered here and there. The workshop I chose to attend was "Destined for excellence", which was chock-full of meaningless slogans, catchy mnemonics and sweet, inspirational nothings. In other words, it was just like every other motivational routine in existence, only with a lot more biblical references and perhaps more uniquely, quotes from Ellen White's works, "Spirit of Prophesy". The workshop presenter was as cute as a button, though, so not all was lost.

There was one young preacher there about whom I found myself thinking that phrase so many of us freethinkers have heard applied to us at some time or other: "what a waste". He was one of the most eloquent and entertaining speakers I have heard in a long time. His anecdotes and analogies in particular, which dealt with things almost everyone in the audience could relate with, were absolutely priceless, and had me chuckling regardless of whether I agreed with his point or not. I found myself thinking about how far the cause of freethought and even science literacy would advance if we had just one speaker like him here in Africa and an organised platform for him to use. And it got me thinking even further: if it were not for his religious upbringing, would he have turned out to be such a good speaker? For a lot of us - many, perhaps even most (myself included), our first and sometimes only experience of speaking in front of a crowd was in church. Adventists in particular will relate - holding Sabbath School, preaching on children's day - these were a big part of our growing up. The same goes for music - it is no mere coincidence that many of the most successful secular musicians of our day testify to having started singing in church.

Now, I'm not about to say religion is all good and wonderful and we should all appreciate it because it gives kids such confidence and nurtures their skills, I am simply acknowledging this fact - this is one of the few things a lot of us have to thank outr religious upbringing for. But, like with all of religion's positive points, there is a better way. The area of discovering and nurturing talent in these areas is one where I believe schools should take a major role. Right from the beginning of Primary education, children should be given opportunities to speak, sing or play instruments in public, in front of a supportive audience. School recitals and talent shows should take the place of church worship programs. The cultivation of talents in an environment where the mind is also learning about the world around it is the best possible environment for producing brilliant, well-informed speakers and artists.

Phew! Good to get that off my chest. Anyway, I survived the whole thing without having a stupid outburst over something blindingly inaccurate or obviously unconscionable that was said (of which there were many), mainly thanks to the patient ear of my one theist friend to whom I am able to talk freely about my worldview regardless of whether we agree - yes, you, buddy. You know yourself. Being able to air my views is a therapeutic experience, without which I would long have snapped. I saw the new year in while in a que for snacks and a terrible looking fruit salad at the so-called "banquet" on the last night of the camp, followed soon afterward by a desultory fireworks show at which I am surprised no one was killed.

So, that's it. That's my recounting of the final week of my 2011. Now, we look to the future. This year, I am refraining from publishing my resolutions thanks to the disaster I made of them last year. Only I know what they are, which will save me some embarrassment. All I can tell you is tat they are a lot more specific, realistiic and within my control than last year's were, so hopefully I will prevail. I'll only tell you what they were if and when I succeed.

Thanks to you all for reading this long ramble, and I wish you all an awesome 2012. I leave you with the awesome music I was listening to all throught the week before last - most particularly I want to highlight Technical Death Metal band Obscura's album Omnivium.

Everyone's Favorite Christian Metalcore Band, from their latest album Dead Throne:



 

French Deathgrind band Benighted, from their album Asylum Cave





And last but not least, some Obscura. Every single track from this album was a masterpiece. I can credit this band as the one that got me to love the sound of the guitar.

Sabbath School 12/03/11 - Satan Takes the Pulpit

Last Friday evening I was blindsided, tricked, coerced, fucking ninja'd into presenting on the next day's Sabbath School. It was Family Life Day and my parents are the directors of the church's family life department, so our family was taking the day. As I said, there was no warning, just an announcement around five-thirty that evening. You would not believe how little I cared for that shit. I just sat there doing nothing, almost swearing that this is where it would go down, this is where the gauntlet would be thrown, the buck would stop, the hammer would fall and I would finally come out and tell them just what I believed, whether they liked it or not. But I ended up reasonig "hell, what will it hurt me to pick up some random book and recite some rote piece of bullcrap at the congregation." The rote piece of bullcrap was from Ellen G. White's The Adventist Home.

I picked "Children in the Home" as my topic, reading from Section XI. It basically codifies the Adventist child rearing philosophy. There is a lot in there I can agree with, including the importance of children helping around the home and things like that, but there is a lot I cannot. There is a very strong emphasis on gender roles, for example, but it is an old book, written when such views were universal. Unfortunately, though, a lot of Adventists (most especially here in Africa) still follow its words as law. The importance of "raising children in the Lord" is also heavily emphasised.

So I ended up doing it, and making it quite convincing, too, adding a few interjections of my own. I have discovered that it's quite easy to lie to a bunch of people whose opinion you don't give a flying donkey's ass about. The crunch came when we were expected to fast on that day, but I had breakfast anyway and managed to sneak in a couple of Bar Ones I stretched to satisfy me the whole afternoon.

***

P.S. Please check out the entries for the Astronomican Winter Contest! My fiction entry is somewhere in there. I'm not at liberty to reveal which one's mine yet. Try guess which it is!

Random Ramble IV - Tempel 1 - Stardust-NExT Rendezvous Day New Year's Resolutions Checkup

I've been told that Tempel 1 - Stardust-NExT Rendezvous Day* is the day to check on one's progress with one's new year's resolutions, the logic behind that being any you've managed to maintain thus far you will probably keep up with all year. Well, here goes(numbered, in the same order as my resolutions post):

1.Productive stuff....uhhhhhhhh...weeeeeeel....ummmmm, sort of, if you count reading blogs as productive. I mean, really, with Pharyngula, Bad Astronomy, Starts With A Bang, Science Blogs Select and the like, you really do learn something. Aside from blog posts and a little extracurricular research into astronomical phenomena, evolutionary biology and other stuff, that's all I've really been doing so far this year.

2.Blog...I've done that. I have done that.

3. Fiction...Ah. Not exactly. I managed to get in one new chapter for Daemon Days before copping out. Inspiration hasn't exactly come easy. I've procrastinated too much on working out my entry for the Winter Competition, so I won't be able to do what I had planned. I've come up with something else, though, and I think this idea will actually make for a better effect than my first one.

4. Varsity...Cambridge wants straight As... and an A in physics. Drat.

5. Girlfriend...............................

6. See above

7. Licence...not yet

8. Enriching lives blah blah blah...I've done well with the knowledge part, I should think. The love part, though...you see, I am a very angry young man. The stress of not coming out to my family may be a major contributor to that, but I have not done well with the love thing at all.

9. I have yet to be informed of where girlfriends are procured.

*Due to the woeful girlfriend situation, I have decided not to observe Valentine's day this year. Every Astro-geek knows, of course, of that zomgamazing thing that's happening today (technically, tomorrow where I'm at, but who's keeping score?), so I've decided to celebrate that instead.

Random Ramble

New year's resolution time!

1. I will do at least one productive, non-school related thing every day, be it learning something or adding something to the collective of human knowledge that's out there. I have a lot of stuff that Needs Getting Done, and have been too much of a procrastinator in the past...I really didn't do much worthy of note in 2010. Hope to change that this year, though. Wish me luck!
2. I will maintain my blog, posting regularly and replying appropriately to any comments.
3. I will write at least one good piece of fiction of respectable length every week. I have an informal writing competition I wish to enter and have a smashing idea for it that's sure to win it for me, but I just haven't developed it enough. I also have a piece of work that's been a work in progress for over a year now, and I want to get it over and done with within the first quarter.
4. I will seriously start looking for and securing a place in a good university. Just one year of high school to go!
5. I will get a girlfriend.
6. I will kiss her.
7. I will get my gosh-darned licence. I'm turning 19 this year, for goodness' sake.
8. I will, overall, work at enriching my experiences, discovering new stuff and also enriching the lives of all those around me with love and knowledge.
9. And I need that goddamn girlfriend where does one go about getting one?

Cheers all, and have a happy and prosperous 2011

P.S. This blog is has now a part of Planet Atheism!