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 III - Am I Bad Ass, or Am I FRICKIN' BAD ASS?!

Got my CIE AS Level results today:

• English Language............A......88%(2% from an A*!!!)
• Biology..............................B......75%
• Chemistry........................B......70%
• Physics.............................D......52%(Yeah, my equipment in the prac had issues and I had the GOD of all headaches during the Multiple Choice and didn't finish)
• Mathematics...................B......75%

Now I must let you know I wrote in less than ideal conditions. Due to...circumstances beyond my control I couldn't attend school the last two terms of the year and had to tutor myself. In one month, just before exams began.

So this has really got me thinking. All this time I've really just been coasting, doing the minimum work necessary but still came up with A's and B's. Now I've actually applied myself, working with no one else, no guidance from a teacher or whatever and still come up with A's and B's. What I could do if I had both the guidance and drive to work on my own scares me shitless. And damn me to hell if I ain't gonna do just that this year.

I am going to have to re-write my physics and math this June if I want A's in both of them, which is what the top varsities want if they are to accept me in their Physics/Astrophysics programs. With my total badassery, I haven't a shadow of a doubt that I'm gonna do it.

On a different note, my preceding post, BREAKING NEWS - Look out! Obama's signing in the National Sunday Law this weekend! has garnered more views in the last few days than all other posts before it combined! Shows you the power of a sensationalist headline...

Random Ramble II - I AM NOT TOUCHING ANYONE'S FEET!!!

Fucking Holy Communion this coming Saturday. Great. Wouldn't be so bad if these people I live with were Catholic or Anglican or some other (marginally) more sensible denomination, but no! They just had to be Seventh Day Adventists! God does indeed work in the most amazing ways: if I weren't born into an Adventist family I wouldn't be able to feel his divine punishment every three months!

You know, Communion wouldn't really be so bad if it weren't for that most idiotic, pointless and fucking screwed up of traditions known as foot-washing. Seriously, all the prayers, the early mornings, the forced witnessing drives, even having to shut up and sit still while they spout item after item I know to be a lie, I can handle. But this is the one thing that could potentilly be my undoing, that could drive me so fucking insane I'd scream my new allegiances at the top of my lungs before killing everyone with my bare hands.

Honestly, I was never a fan of foot washing even back when I still sorta kept the faith. I remember the second time I was supposed to partake I decided to skip the whole shindig, much to my mothers chagrin. I could even dare say it was one of the catalysts that made me lose it, though I don't think it was that much of a factor. I still didn't really mind doing it back when I was still in Zimbabwe though (at least not as much as I do now) because I at least was with people I already knew quite intimately...I knew how clean they kept their feet, so I could bear touching them every once in a while. I still didn't quite look forward to it but it was bearable.

When we moved to Kanye in the south of Botswana is when I started having serious issues with it. I couldn't connect with the fellows there...I had begun to loathe church and all the people associated with it. Beginning of the year 2009, I swore I would never participate in that disgusting, creepy ritual. It was pretty easy...Kanye SDA was a very large church, so I tried to blend into the background as best as I could(not that easy for such a tall and handsome fellow as I). I pulled it off - of all four holy communions held in '09 I washed feet at none, though I cannibalised Jesus at all of them when in the presence of my parents in order to maintain the ruse. Apparently this is a taboo, but I still haven't been struck dead by the good Lord, so I think I got away with it.

Then we moved to Francistown...

First three months were ok: we were at a medium sized congregation, so I just barely managed to slip under the radar the first time. Then in april we moved to a bigger house in a less devout part of town with the most pathetic sized congregation in all of history. I mean, on a good day there's no more than thirty people! Needless to say, with the increased visibility I have been accursed with having to actively participate every fucking time. It's enough to drive a man fucking insane!

My reasons for despising this shit is obvious: who the fuck wants to touch some other guy's feet, which you don't fucking know where the fuck they've been? And worse, what if they've got fungus? Of course, some people (like me) do keep their feet meticulously clean. But that just makes the whole thing useless, doesn't it? If the fellow's got dirty, diseseased feet, I'm putting myself at risk of infection. If they're clean then the ritual's just superfluous, isn't it?

One of my "buddies" I told of my misgivings said I was being vain, that foot washing is a symbol of humility. Well know what? Maybe I don't proscribe to your fucked up idea of humility?! Maybe my humility is kindness, compassion, helping people, not boasting about my perceived piety and accepting praise only when it is due. I despise all the fakeness and symbolic ritual associated with religion. If you really want to do good, don't just play pretend with all your little friends in your comfort zone. Get out into reality and get your fucking hands dirty actually helping people.

But hell, what the fuck can I do? I've already set myself to keeping my parents in the dark about my faithlessness whatever the cost. And if mother's reaction to last Saturday's sermon ("Our children are turning from the Lord" or some bullshit like that) is anything to go by, this is the easiest and the right decision for me to make. So, barring faking illness or breaking my leg on purpose (I could do that), I will be washing some motherfucker's feet this coming blessed Sabbath. Fuck.

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!