Live from Ithica

NE RoKS going well so far - up to lunch and everyone seems to be having a good time getting to know one another. Trying to decide what I'm going to do for Global Village tonight... I have my England top and not a whole lot else. Monty Python quotes on a flipchart? The rules of cricket? Hmmm...

2 of the last 3 meals I've had have been pizza. Blor...

I'm not 22 anymore

Thanks for the posts, everyone! Aside from realizing I had forgot my laptop when I was two blocks away from work, the day has been great so far. Jen and Jill got me a ride in a helicopter around NYC, which promises to be a pretty unique experience. Plus, cupcakes!

Revelations

Just realized that the majority of AIESEC's infamous "Two/Three Letter Acronyms" aren't actually acronyms. AIESEC is an acronym because you actually say "Eye-Sek"; CL isn't because you say "C-L" and not... umm... "Cllll". Whadda shame.

My goal for the weekend - do something more interesting than thinking about acronyms.

Sports, Valentines, Truman Capote

So I guess another New Year's Resolution needs to be to not start every post by saying to myself "wow, I haven't posted in a while"... but I do now have posting rights to the nomadlife homepage, so that's an added incentive.

Went bowling with... well, pretty much everyone over the weekend. Did pretty well too, considering it's usually good luck for me to hit a pin every now and again. Everyone got blown away by Jen (Starky) and her 4-strikes-in-a-row run.

Plenty of sports happening at the moment, actually - the volleyball team I'm on with Jill, Sarah, Joe, Scott, Dave & Nirish won last week despite only having 5 players (and starting off with 4 until Joe made his dramatic entrance), the superbowl party was a lot of fun, we're playing volleyball again this coming season and we're setting up a touch-football team as well. Haven't been watching a lot of the Olympics, though - what's the deal with the US skiier's spider-web style gear?

Valentine's Day yesterday was actually pretty fun - Nata and I met up with her room-mate and some of her friends and saw Capote (very good but kind of a downer) and then got ice cream afterwards (depression and ice-cream - now that's a good mix for Feb 14th). If I see Munich before March 5th I'll have seen all the best picture nominees before the Oscars. I don't particulary care, but it's good to set goals.

Not the way to start the day

States Eye Picketing at Soldiers' Funerals


During the 1990s, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., went around picketing the funerals of AIDS victims with protest signs that read, "God Hates Fags." But politicians began paying more attention recently when church members started showing up at the burials of soldiers and Marines killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

...

The church has about 75 members, most of them belonging to the extended family of Westboro Baptist's pastor, the Rev. Fred Phelps. The church is an independent congregation that preaches a literal reading of the Bible.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps' daughter and an attorney for the church, said states cannot interfere with their message that the soldiers were struck down by God because they were fighting for a country that harbors homosexuals and adulterers.

...

Legislation against funeral protests was also introduced in West Virginia last month after a small knot of protesters from Westboro Baptist demonstrated outside a memorial for the 12 men killed in the Sago Mine disaster. The protesters held signs reading, "Thank God for Dead Miners," "God Hates Your Tears" and "Miners in Hell," arguing that the miners' deaths were a sign of God's wrath at America for tolerating gays.

...I honestly don't know what to say. What these "people of God" are doing is beyond disgusting and so offensive to me as a Christian I can hardly stand it. Why is religion the cause of so much hate and pain in the world?