My TV pleasure without guilt

I started this particular blog because of a question posed on Plinky ( http://www.plinky.com/) , "What's your 'guilty pleasure' TV show?" I could think of nothing .

I can't say that guilt ever occurred to me while watching TV. Boredom,yes - but guilt is not a typical emotion for me. My taste and my wife's taste are very often different and mutual viewing is sometimes boring for one of us. And then there is my Son and my grandchildren, they also have their differing taste. I guess that is why we have three TVs ,not to mention three computers. I guess guilt will have be a problem for the gods. I don't have time to hide.

Off course, maybe if I could get the Playboy channel, I would watch in secret.....Nah! I would probably invite over some of my Christian friends and tell them that we were going to watch new Movie called "Apocalypse and the New Earth". , and I would video tape their reaction. Except my Christan friends don't trust me. They love me and want to save me from being a "backslider" (A "backslider" is one who has lost his way and returned to the ways of evil). It has always amazed me that a community could pursue consuming Hate and determined Love at the same time.

So much for guilty viewing. This blog was an interesting exercise in learning how to write with almost no redeeming social value. So I decide to publish it anyhow. It is difficult to write life changing social commentary all the time, so I thought I would give you this filler today.

I will throw in a few TV watching images just to add a little class to this time waster.

cartoonstock.com

sodahead.com

chetthaker.wordpress.com

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essentialbaby.com.au

I Love the Daylilly

I  Love the Daylilly

I love My Daylilly I have since I was five years old. I offer to share my Love. My first experience with dayllies was a mass bed of the old fashion orange daylilly (Hemerocallis fulva). The bed was watered frequently from the sink drain in the kitchen and green and thick most of the year. It bloomed profusely for about two weeks in June every year. I planted my first Vegetable garden along side the flowers We moved away from that small house when I was ten years old I never forgot the beauty of that mass of daylilles.

During my teenage years, the flower beds belonged to my mother and my gardening was mostly vegetables, strawberries, and melons. I did not renew my interest in daylilles, until I returned home from military, got married and purchase my own home.

The first varieties I planted were the old orange ones I remembered from my child hood. I also got the lemon yellow that was one of the earlier varieties and the orange variety that had a bloom with a multi-set of petals(and sepals) instead of the usual six(3 petals and 3 sepals). I started with these because I could get them for free from friends who love the old varieties.

Then I discovered that the father of a friend that I went to high school with was an amateur Hybridize who had developed several named varieties. I then started adding to my collection. Overtime I purchase different varieties that bloom at several different times from early spring to late fall. Some bloomed more than once during during the year and were called rebloomers. I had varieties as small as 12 inches and as tall as more than 3 feet. I had colors from almost white to deep purple. My all time favorite is a small cultivar called STELLA De ORO. Its blooming scape(stem) is about 12 inches tall. It has a small tight yellow bloom and it blooms at least three times during the year. It will multiply very fast. I started with three several years ago and now I have about a couple of hundred plants that I use as border plants along my fence line.

The daylilly is the perfect perennial. It comes in many colors and a variety of shapes and sizes. It can be used in all types of landscapes alone and in combination with other plants. It doesn't take a lot of care. It can be found in a wide range of climates, has few disease and pest problems and can grow in wet and dry. It does well in full sun or partial shade. By using a number of varieties, you can have blooms from early spring to l
ate fall.

I have other flowers(gladiolas, iris, tiger lilles) but none have that special place that started in the heart of a five year old boy. I tend to grow them in rows rather that formal garden layouts because it makes it easier for me to organize them by blooming date and size and flower shape and color. It makes it easier to hybridize(cross pollinate) for new varieties. Take a look at the Daylilly and you will find a new passion if you love flowers.

Christian Mind Changers

I came from a religious family and practically grew up in the church. I was a "born again" Christian by the time I was 12 years old. I approached religious scholarship with the same intensity that I had for all things that I was interested in learning. I read books about sermons, books about religious leaders, books about the Bible, and even books about Christian history and about other religions. I took every Bible study course offered by the church and read the whole Bible cover to cover. Parts of it I read many times. My goal in life was to become a church pastor and Preacher of the Gospel .

The older I got the more I realized that most church members knew very little about the Bible. Most of them thought that if they worshiped regularly, made public professions of faith in the Church Theological Dogma (which they didn't really understand) and obeyed the Ten Commandants, their ticket to heaven would be punched.
The most important part of being a Christan was the support of the religious community and the respectability it gave you in the general community.

But that wasn't enough for me. As I have already said, I had an intense interest in knowledge of all kinds. The study of science had convinced me that the world was far older than six thousand years, that Adam & Eve had to be an allegory, and that a world flood and salvation from drowning by way of the Arc was an impossibility. 

By the time I understood the implication of evolution the deal was done. If I was forced to accept the Bible as literal and without error in order to become a Minister I would have to live a lie. I was unwilling to do that

There were practical problems for me in church teachings. When prayer went unanswered (as it usually did), the explanation that God answered in his own time or his own way or sometimes said no was not acceptableto me. God either helped or he didn't. 

 The idea that a person could be subject to punishment for ever and ever because he did not accept church doctrine or had never even heard  of the Church Doctrine that one must know to have the option to choose was Unjust and without Mercy and unacceptable. God himself would have to explain it to me and I might not accept it even then.

There I was at 16 years of age with out a religion, without a chosen profession and without a direction. I was an Agnostic leaning at times to Atheist and at time to Pantheist( where the Holy Being's only job was to Be). 

 I also knew that Science had just began to reveal Knowledge or at least had given us a method to "Propose but Verify". And slowly I discovered freedom and passion and new purpose.

 While my life took a pedestrian path and I never acquire the credentials to prove I know what I know, I did acquire the confidence to know that I know what I know. After you have had a chance to absorb that convoluted statement, I will tell you where I now stand. I have reached the comfortable age of 67 without acquiring a fear of death and lost the fear of speaking to controversy. I have renewed a great passion for writing that I had in my youth. My sense of ethics, human value, and a passion for making life as good as I can remained with me even when God had gone. The journey ahead is shorter than the one behind, but it is filled with joy and anticipation. Come! Walk with me.

LOOKING FOR NUTS

Glenda is my daughter. She has her Degree in Psycology. Part of her job is counseling I thought this was to funny to pass up. I hope she doesn't get to mad at me for taking advantage. I should have ask first. But I'm too old to change now.

Glenda Hodge:

This squirrel was sitting on my window sill at work. How can I work with a crazy squirrel looking at me!

July 29 at 8:48p

Glenda...there were sooooo many comments that just popped into my head when I read the part about, "how can I work with a crazy squirrel?" I was thinking...you work with WHOM everyday? haha haha

Glenda: people, for the most part, are predictible. I don't know what that squirrel is doing.

Thu at 11:35am