I work 12-hour nights and I try my best to keep the same sleep schedule all throughout the week. With everybody else in the house sleeping, and no money to spend going out to anywhere that's open through the night, I try my best to stay home and keep quiet. I've tried playing video games, but I'm a pretty serious gamer, and I get pretty into my games, and after a while my frustrations become noisily animated. I've tried reading books, but with a case of ADD as serious as mine, reading is just out of the question. So, I channel surf the basic cable. With 78 different infomercials to choose from, ranging from easy to use "set it and forget it" kitchen appliances, to psychics and supernatural healers, I've never found myself bored.

    Some of these programs are really great. The people showing off the product aren't obviously desperate to sell their product, or trying to damn me to hell for not buying it; but rather they're simply showing what the product can do, and letting it sell itself. It's commercials like these that will actually keep my attention (serious attention, rather than "this guy's such an idiot I can't take my eyes off of him" attention) for an extended period of time. And since I just moved into an apartment featuring a kitchen full of large paperweights rather than appliances, some of these commercials are totally relevant. I just now watched one for a Bose 321 system that I MUST OWN. It would be absolutely perfect for use with my computer. I've been looking to pick up a surround system for my computer for a while now, but my room would make putting a 5.1 Surround system in virtually impossible. This thing is BOSE, so it's obviously amazing (not to mention expensive), and there's only two speakers that put out full surround sound. Perfect.

    Anyway, the purpose of this post is to beg the question, "Do you even pay attention to ads?" Take this guy for example. Everybody knows him, and I'm pretty sure there's a large crowd ready and waiting to get their fist in his face at the first opportunity. His name is Billy Mays, and he screams for Oxy Clean. Never before have I seen the a more perfect example of cliche infomercialism than this guy's stuff. Whether he's selling Oxy Clean, or a bag of dead rats, he's always yelling "You need this product!!" Now, what on earth would I need a bag of dead rats for? Or a set of wrenches and power tools? I don't have a rat-eating child, or own a rat-eating pet, and I live in an apartment, so I really have no need for home and garden tools. Every time this guy comes on the TV, no matter how deadly the suspense of getting back to the show I was watching is, or how interesting the product he's selling is, I change the channel. Forget the mute button; Lord knows this guy's voice would boldly come right through a muted television.

    But advertisements go far beyond infomercials. They're absolutely everywhere you look. Billboards, magazines, between segments of your favorite show, all over your myspace page. Ads are getting so out of control these days, that I've just stopped paying attention to them altogether. "Click here and win a free iPod!!!" Yea, right. More like, "Click here and you'll be formatting your hard drive every day for the rest of your life in a sad attempt to get rid of the virus you just downloaded!!"

    Advertisements really upset me because they're proof of just how dumb people are becoming. We've all seen countless adds that closely resemble a windows system message pop-up saying, "Windows has encountered an error. Go to www.wewillsearchyououtandkillyou.com to get rid of the virus that caused it." Yeah, first of all, Windows will never tell you to go to a specific website. Everybody knows that. Second of all, Windows system messages don't flash brilliant, seizure-causing colors, or move about inside an internet browser pop-up window. And yet we all know that there are people out there calling the Geek Squad as soon as this sort of window pops up, thinking they're computer's broken. Others I've seen will say, "You're winner conformation number is #359759379874. Please click here to claim your new Rolls Royce." Are you serious?! It's quite depressing to know that there's a human being out there who's jumping for joy and calling the family about the car they've just won. How stupid do these advertising companies think we are?

    A really good product or service will sell itself, and people appreciate and/or respect others who are forward and honest. Nowadays, people are just desperately trying to pull pennies from your pocket, doing anything and everything they can think of to make you buy their product. It's absolutely sickening, and it really doesn't have to be. Quite honestly, I like commercials. They can be funny, they can be well done, they can be informative. But when somebody actually tries to sell me their product or service by presenting me with a television commercial that's nothing more than 30 seconds of my life that I'll never see again, or with an internet add that's obviously trying to mislead or lie to me, I feel like boycotting that business for their worthless and selfish attempts at winning me over, rather than buying their product.

Addition (edit, for the lay person): Do I even need to mention political ads? I find it hilarious how candidates can take something so normal/obvious/whatever and turn it against someone. Al Franken is the worst!

    What about you? Do internet and TV ads ever win you over?

I wrote this a while back for my Revelife site (also vwagenjetta) and the Revelife team "featured" it (if you can call it that). Since it's a ways back in my Archive, I figured I'd re-post it for all the new subscribers I got thanks to Jon's interview. Enjoy!

Unforgiving Christians: The Biggest Hypocrites?
by vwagenjetta

    There are some who say that the most hypocritical people are those who sit in  church every Sunday. This relates to the Brennan Manning quote used by DC Talk (and War of Ages), "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is simply what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable." Although some believe this statement goes against everything Jesus taught, I do believe it holds some truth in today's world.

    In today's society, being the kind of Christian God wants you to be can be extremely difficult. Around every corner is an opportunity, if not a legitimate reason, to sin. Sex has lost it's sacred value and become an acceptable pastime for "people who love each other" (see 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8); in some circles knowing the personal lives of others (e.g. celebrities) as well as you know your own has become necessary to retain a feeling of acceptance, or popularity (see Romans 1:29); and sharing the word of God with a non-believer will often get you the response, "religion is so yesterday." That being said, I believe Christianity, in its intended form, is the most difficult faith to be a part of in this, the age of "absolute freedom."

    I myself have been a hypocritical Christian. I've engaged in premarital sex, drunkenness, lying, cheating, and stealing, among other things. I do of course try my best to stay away from such things, and the weight of the guilt that follows them is crushing to say the least. God forgives our sins, but that doesn't give us a reason to keep on sinning, as so many so-called Christians do. Sins are mistakes, and like any "mistake maker" (sinner), Christians can learn from their mistakes, or sins, and reap the benefits of the guilt that follows by making sure the same mistake is not made twice. Suffice to say, I have learned my lessons, and I'm extremely thankful for God's forgiveness of my sins.

    Just like every human being in existence, I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). I've done things so horrible in the eyes of God I deserve eternal death in Hell. But thanks to Jesus, who died in my place, God can forgive my sins, washing my slate as clean as freshly fallen snow (Isaiah 1:18). People, Christians even, seem to have lost the ability to truly forgive. We've all reluctantly said "I forgive you" to someone, only to hold a grudge against them afterward. Matthew 6:14-15 says "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if your refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." This verse alone proves that truly forgiving others is a very important part of being a Christian.

    Sometimes truly forgiving someone over and over for the same thing can get annoying. Sometimes truly forgiving someone seems out of the question because we feel they've wronged us in a way that couldn't possibly be forgiven. Sometimes we reluctantly forgive someone only because we're forced to. There are many ways we can avoid truly forgiving people. But no matter how many times we have to forgive someone, no matter how unforgivable we feel the sin to be, as Christians we must forgive and forget in order to get on with our lives, and draw nearer to God. Because if we don't forgive others, it would be hypocritical to ask for forgiveness ourselves.

    Have you been convicted to forgive someone lately?

Theo's Cafe recently posted a blog about the truthfulness of those who've been raped and/or molested. I went to comment, and it got a little long, so I figured I'd post it as a blog as well.

My ex-girlfriend (the biggest psycho on the planet, I guarantee it) claimed to have been raped and/or molested throughout the course of her life by friends and family members. My problem with believing most of what she said was that she was still "best friends" with the guys she claimed had raped her. She was absolutely crazy for attention, and would stop at nothing to get it, and was very open about her past with everyone she came across. She also had some sort issue that caused grand mall seizures every once in a while, and when she snapped out of it (with the use of smelling salts) she would always say "I wish somebody could catch me having a seizure on video." She would always ask me what she looked like, and what happened while she was seizing, but I never told her because I had an theory about why she wanted to know. One Thanksgiving, while she and I were at my house with a bunch of my friends I hadn't seen for a few months, she kept dragging me away to my room because she wanted some "alone time." I asked her why she was doing this while my friends were over, and she finally came out and said "Because you're not giving me enough attention." It was then when she asked me what she looked like while having a seizure (for the 200th time) and I finally decided to test my theory. I told her what happened when she had a seizure, but everything I told her was entirely false. No more than 10 minutes afterward, she "started feeling sick." She then had a 'seizure' (in the exact false manner I described it to her moments before) and embarrassed the hell out of me in front of not only all my old friends from high school, but also my parents (and my dad is a paramedic, so he knew what was up the whole time). Needless to say, that was the end of that relationship.

Artist: Gwen Stacy

Album: The Life I Know

Song: Falling From The Fence

How long can you tread water

With no option to sink or swim?

We run in circles

Chasing our shadows

On a track that leads to nowhere

I’ll pay the price for apathy

Is it me?

Suddenly there is a spark, then a flame

Then a fire that surrounds me

Into this dark world I carry this spark

For I refuse to let my faith go unseen

I made my choice

I’ll take a chance

Don’t wait for me

No slowing down

No turning back

Don’t wait for me

The cross before me, road behind me

No turning back

Though no one joins me, still I follow

No turning back

I made my choice

I’ll take a chance

No turning back

It’s about time we stand for something

Visual/Screen/Environment Effects

• Blue screen of death - Every computer savvy individual's worst nightmare. The screen goes blue, and there's text that reads something along the lines of "Fatal Error: Gamecube system fils corrupt."
• Blood will drip from the walls or ceiling - Like most of the "Your sanity meter is on it's way to getting low" effects, this one's not really a big deal, and it's hardly noticable.
• Paintings will change appearance - Also a "Your sanity meter is on it's way to getting low" effect, this one's equally as "low-key" but it will make you do a few double takes.
• Heads of statues will follow your movements - If you have ADD, this will entertain you for hours.
• The game will appear to delete your saved game - No joke. The game will out of nowhere enter the "pause" menu, arrow down to "delete saved game," and erase all of your saved material right before your eyes. It's all a hoax, due to your charactars insanity, but this one will make you cry the first time you see it.
• Bugs will crawl across the screen - Ever been extremely annoyed by a fly crawling on your TV while your trying to game? This fly looks pretty real, but it's just another sanity effect; and for the most anal people, like me, a very infuriating one.
• Nails will scratch across the screen - eesh.
• A fly will buzz around the screen - Like the fly previously listed, this one flies around (God forbid you have surround sound) and I guarantee you will actually pause the game in an attempt to get rid of the fly in your gaming room. Embarassing!
• The television will appear to turn off - It'll do the whole "zap" thing, where the picture will pull into a small white circle in the middle of the screen, which will disappear after a second. Not very effective if you're playing on an LCD screen. lol.
• Room-specific objects will float in the air - This "game-glitch" looking effect works wonders when followed by the "blue screen of death" listed above.

Control/Character Effects

• A message appears alerting you that controller one is not connected - When this effect happened to me, I was deeply involved in the game. I had fought this "boss" guy like 27 times, and I had him down to virtually no life. Holding my breath, and button-mashing as frantically as possible, I was SO close to beating him, when "my controller became unplugged." About to have a heart attack, I DOVE at my GameCube, breaking my parent's coffee table, only to find it was another "sanity effect," many of which I'd seen before. Probably the most embarassing moment of my life, I paused the game and chuckled while my pulse made it's way back to normal.
• Your character will grow larger or smaller during movement - Go through a door to find the room is really huge or really small. Or is it your character.....
• The environment will be upside down and you will walk on the ceiling - This one's pretty obvious, and, again, if you have ADD it will provide hours of laughter
• The character's body will break apart as you walk (you can pick up your body bits) - Another obvious one.
• Casting spells will cause you to explode - Nothing's worse than the first time you see this one. You'll go to cast a healing spell on yourself, and instead of healing, your body will fall to pieces.
• Character will turn into a zombie in the next room - go through a door, and all of the sudden your dude's a zombie. WTF?
• Controls will become inverted - This one is especailly devistating when you're almost dead, and almost to the checkpoint you've been after for the past 11 hours. "Almost there.....almost there......WTF!!!??? NO!"

Audio Effects

• The audio will mute - Funny, because it actually says "Mute" in "TV Menu" green in the top corner of your screen. If the Mute in the game looks like the Mute on your TV, I guarantee you'll be searching for the remote.
• Crying and whispers can be heard in the background. - Yea, this game is not for Schitzo's.
• Knocking and creaking floor can be heard in the background. - "There's a guy coming!!! Wait, where is he...?"
• You may hear chapter-specific sounds in the background, like a maid being drained by the vampire beast just before doing Edward's chapter. - Yea, that's more of an inside story, so I'll let it speak for itself when you play the game.