Words of the day...

Disagreement. - the lack of agreement. When two people do not agree. My question is this- Why do people get bent out of shape over disagreements? If you tell me what you think, and I tell you what I think, how does that make me at fault? If you say, "Gee, that was a good movie" and I say "Oh, well, I thought it sucked" -it seems to me it could just be left at that. Some people though, hold their opinions in such high regard that they perceive anyone who expresses a differing opinion as being purposefully contradictory. They act as if my opinion didn't exist until they voiced theirs and then I quickly formulated my own deliberately opposite opinion. I find such an attitude to be severely flawed. I think if someone feels the need to voice their opinion to me, that I should be able (and in some instances feel obligated) to share my opinion (pre-existing or otherwise) without worrying about whether or not the other person is going to take offense. I'm not going to lie for the sake of being agreeable. The fact of the matter is, I don't see any problem with disagreeing. It's only to be expected. Everyone is going to disagree about things, and it doesn't give either party the right to be pissed off.

Tolerance. - Unlike some people, I happen to believe tolerance is a good thing. I recall seeing a shirt in a Christian book store that said "be intolerant ... because some things are just stupid." I was surprised, but even more than that I was appalled. What happened to 'turn the other cheek' ? Is that not a message of tolerance? Would it not make more sense for it to say "be tolerant ... because sometimes you're stupid" ? I am constantly surrounded by people who think, believe, and do things that I don't agree with, but I know this does not give me the right to be upset or angered. That's called tolerance. Even the "golden rule" seems to imply that if you want people to tolerate you, then you should tolerate them. The point is, I tolerate a lot of shit on a daily basis, and I don't think it's too much to ask for people to tolerate me.

So everyone is bitching about me not updating the site. Ok, not everyone, but some... which is enough to motivate me to update once again. So what's new? Well... there have been some changes to the site. Nothing major yet, but I've laid the foundation for a couple of new sections. I'm sure you've noticed the Comics and Merchandise sections. I'm going to be opening a cafepress shop though I haven't finalized designs for everything. I won't have a wide variety of products at first, but if respose is good, there could be more. Anyway, that's looking like something that should be complete by mid-January. The comics page is a bit more in the open. The main feature, and more than likely the only feature that will be on that page is the Skeletoons. I'm kind of new to the comic strip thing, but I'm not aiming for widespread syndication... just something I can use to express my skewed sense of humor here on the site.

And on the more personal side of things...

Christmas is here again... which is always a fun time of year for an atheist such as myself. You might be suprised to learn that I treat christmas the same as many christians do. To me, it's more of a secular kind of thing, ya know? I know some people may say I'm being hypocritical by taking part in what is supposed to be a strictly christian holiday... so what's my defense? Well, I've come to realize that being atheist means never having to say you're sorry. So what if I want to get in on the gift giving (and recieving) and decorate a tree? At least I can say it's my own decision - not like God made me do it. It all REALLY goes back to the winter solstice anyway, right? Please, argue amongst yourselves. So I've bought stuff for most people, and yet not for others. Cash has been a weak point this year, so I opted to buy for everyone most important to me and do my best not to put any thing on my credit cards. I did so successfully except for having to buy Need for Speed: Underground (greatest racing game ever, btw) the day it came out. No big deal though.

That game really got me in the mood to want to do more to my car so my parents are getting me a AEM CAI (cold air intake) for x-mas. Hopefully, Eric and I will be able to install it. Of course income tax rebate time isn't too far off, and I'm probably gonna sink a good part of that into an exhaust system. Sterling suggests I go with a Tanabe Hyper Medallion, which is a decent exhaust from what I can tell, but there's also the racing medallion from the same company which looks really nice. Yet everyone on the everythingcelica.com boards (and these guys seem to know their cars) recommend the TRD (toyota racing development) exhaust. I'll have to make that decision when the time comes I suppose. Also I want to get my windows tinted, but I'm not sure of a good place locally to get it done, or what's a good price. My dreams of a nice spoiler and body kit have been put on the backburner until atleast 2005 unless I pay off some debts this year - and then go right back into debt.

I bought a bunch of things for Melissa for x-mas. Not that I totally sacrificed quality for quantity - I'm sure she'll like everything I got her. Actually, she knows what some of the things are I got her, and I let her open one, which was an old counting crows CD she had asked for. In turn, she let me open one of my two gifts. I was worried that I wouldn't like it - and that sounds bad, I know - but she had told me that it wasn't something I actually wanted and not necessarily something I didn't already have. Anyway, it was really great. It's a Zippo lighter, chrome, with "Glenn Monkey" engraved on one side, and "I love you" on the other side. - to which all I could say was "Awwwww..." .She's so wonderful. Then I found out Sterling knew about it weeks in advance and didn't tell me- that bastard. Speaking of that bastard, I got him a copy of Final Fantasy X he said he wanted to go with the PS2 he's planning on buying, and in turn, he bought me the coolest pair of retard shoes from wal-mart. I call them retard shoes because they're really cheap, less than $10 even after tax, and have velcro straps instead of laces. Anyway, you would really have to know me to understand how $10 wal-mart shoes could be cool. They say "I just don't give a shit what you think" because they're not name brand and they don't even try to resemble a name brand. They're not flashy, and they've got a '15 yrs. out of date' semi-retro feel to them. If it were up to me, velcro would be the next big thing to make a come-back. Yea, I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, I'm tired of typing, and I think I've said what I feel like saying for the time being. Hopefully my next entry won't be so untimely.