pinakidion.*

I am telling you that if stories of the supernatural creep you out, don’t read this post.

Really. I’m going to divulge a part of my past that I reflect on every year about this time. If spooky stuff gives you the heebie-jeebies, turn back now. Read about my wedding outfit or about the random Dubya quote. Better yet, read something edifying and go to Alan’s blog.

You have now been warned.

When I studied the Bible(TM), I got to that part that really determines if you trust the people leading the studies or not. You tell them about all your past.

The trouble was, I didn’t have the sexual sins they wanted me to have. I was hammered for lying because all guys have either had premarital sex or masturbated. I have done neither. This infuriated them and sent them for a real loop. They had to settle for heavy petting in High School - they were really disappointed, I think.

The two big sins I had to deal with were lying and witchcraft. When I say witchcraft, I do not mean pot, cigarettes, or alcohol. I mean honest-to-goodness witchcraft. It’s not that I was a serious student, but I dabbled in it and was gratified by the power I thought I had.

It started when I was 10 or 11. I became fascinated with ghost stories. They had to be somewhat verifiable to really spook me. I had pictures of ghostly figures on stairs, phantom faces in the window of a lighthouse (the top windows), and more. As much as these stories scared me, a part of me wanted to investigate the truth about these ghosts. The fact that they were dead, but somehow still connected to earth really fascinated me. I also wondered how all this meshed with the Bible and Christianity.

That got me to poltergeists. I had heard some talk about casting out demons and whether Jesus cast out real demons or metaphorical ones. At the time, I believed the movies, The Exorcist and the Amytiville Horror as mostly true stories. Still, the demons in these stories did not act like the ones in the Bible. I figured that there had to be something else to this.

When I was 12, I went to see my cousins and we got around to playing with a Ouija board. We noticed that if either me or my cousing were one of the people touching the pointer, that it moved faster. We decided that both of us should, and I kid you not, the pointer took off. We spelled words as fast as we could read them out.

So I thought that she was pushing it, so I pushed back. She did the same. We decided that we would just put our tips straight up-and-down on the pointer so that there was no way either or us could be pushing it.

The spirit spelled out “It is not you, it is me.”

Elephants recognize themselves when they look into a mirror.

Considering their reputation for memory, I would hope that they could remember themselves.

Okay, back to work. That’s the weird factoid of the day.

Blogged with Flock

In one version of a series of events, Russ Ewell of San Francisco, err - Bay Area Church sent Kip to Portland. I’m certain that Kip would have been hired somewhere eventually, but not in 2003.

Now, there is an International Christian Church in San Francisco.

This is a ‘thank you’, I guess for all the help in getting a job when no one wanted to acknowledge that he existed.

There is something that I am noticing about these new churches, though. As best I can tell, none of them are larger than 15 - 20 folks. They are meeting in homes and loathe to mention their numbers. It seems that these new churches are basically made up of a Bible Talk or Family Group that wants things back the way they were.

Remember the group in Stockholm? Maybe ten people, if that. Hilo? 12 -15. Honolulu? Less than that. LA? Not the 10,000 of yore (though it was later found that the Rose Bowl service actually had closer to 8900 in attendance). LA is Ron Harding and a couple Bible Talks. The only exception seems to be Kiev, Ukraine, but there’s no telling which source is correct in estimating their membership. (For the record, ICC says about 200, ICoC says about 20. Guess which acronym is which.)

The Bay Area Church, by the way, is the largest non-signer of the UP. They went to the ILC in Va Beach, but they are still the largest non-signer. I wonder if anyone is going to visit them to share perspective (based on my experiences with Russ, I doubt it).

Don’t know why I mention all this except to say that I was in the middle of writing about my past and its connections to Halloween, sorta. I think I needed a break from the heebie-jeebies.

Okay, thanks to SSH, I’m back.

from now on, no more playing with file permissions.

in any case, I’m back, life is good.

Just to let you know that because it’s our anniversary, I won’t be around until tomorrow, Tues Nov 1.

I feel this out of it today.

There’s an old saying in Tennessee–I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee–that says, fool me once, shame on–shame on you. Fool me–you can’t get fooled again.

George w. Bush

Nashville, TN
09/17/2002
Speaking at the East Literature Magnet School

ICOCINFO comes back with a new post.

It’s not on the main site at all. Maybe it’s like an easter egg. (Actually it’s a page that comes up when certain churches are searched for.)

Man, this fall has all kinds of things happening. Nonny’s site is doing a booming business. The ILC, the International Christian Churches, Salt Lake, UP dramas, DToday is promising a makeover, etc. etc. etc. Now Kelcy makes a new post.

I’m thinking that the lost awaited RTR4 is on the horizon…

I wrote about the increasing number of blades on a razor here on Sep 15 2005. Now, the Economist is looking at theMoore’s Law effect on the number of blades in a razor. The write suggests that additional blades follow a hyperbolic curve, not the curve suggested by Moore’s law.

In English, instead of a 14 blade razor in 2100, it will be on shelves within four years.

I am still claiming the TM on the Phlebotomizer - the 40 bladed wonder.

Glad I use an electric myself.

Salt Lake has asked to be on nobody’s list.

This includes the UP and Kip’s list from his recent article.

Here is a group of people, as best I can tell, that are following the guidelines set out in the UP without signing it. There is a connection to Salt Lake from here, our former minister (two ago, before the present one and the one that moved to plant a church in Wisconsin) is a leader there. That’s why I care so much. For the longest time, I thought that if Kip could get a foothold here, it would be through them. However, in my talks with folks there, I soon changed my mind and realized that their mindset is not heading that way.

I believe that Kip is going to ridicule them in public and private. I’d be surprised if the Portland speaker mentioned in the article makes it there to speak. I hope I am wrong about the ridicule.

In ten years or so when the International Christian Churches (Portland Movement) crumbles, I believe the SLC will be there for folks damaged like we are. I’d like to believe that this article is a signal of God’s providence in the future.

I don’t agree, however, with trying to straddle the fence on both sides. Kip is a false teacher - we didn’t do enough four years ago to deal with it and we reaped the whirlwind. Not dealing with Kip’s error will do the same. I don’t believe Kip will allow this - I’m certain that cities with ‘two churches’ are not really keen on this idea, either.

Still, I wish them well. I’m an idealist at heart, I hope it works.

I keep having the same dream for the past few nights. I do not know what it means.

It begins with people coming over to my house or with me going to someone else’s house. I see people that I don’t know, but I’m able to say hello and chat for awhile. I think it is a Wednesday night or a Thursday. For some reason I keep reminding myself that it is not Sunday morning.

After some time, I tell everyone that it is time to start. At this point, I become an observer in the crowd as I see myself doing this. From this point forward, whenever I speak to the group, I see myself as a memebr of the group. When I think to myself, I am ‘myself’ again looking at the group.

I welcome everyone to wherever we are and briefly talk about how all of us are here to worship God. I explain that I coordinate things, but that this service is participatory as explained on the website. I encourage those that did not know that it is okay to feel like you are not ready, we all felt that way at first. After more words of welcome, I ask if anyone has anything Scripture to share or song to sing. I remind people that a time for sharing what the Scripture means to you will come later, for now this is just for reading Scripture. Someone begins a song for the church and we all fumble through a songbook that I do not recognize. After the song, someone reads from a Psalm. Another person reads a passage from Matthew and mentions why its important. I remember thinking to myself that it is okay that this person didn’t follow protocol - this is about worship. As long as it doesn’t get out of hand, this is still orderly worship. Another song follows, this one slower than the first and the crowd is more confident of the words and tune. Three more share passages, though I’m not sure which ones.

After a pause, I ask if anyone else has something to share. No one else does, so I begin to tell the group that this is the time for prayers. A person can just pray aloud, or mention a prayer need. Various people pray for forgiveness, some pray for the health of a relative. A couple of people simply state a need instead of pray - one for job stuff, another for Spiritual strength in the trials of life. I think to myself that this last person used peculiar language to express himself and reminded myself that this was bound to happen. For some reason, I remind myself that we (the group) are not all from the same tradition. After another silence, this one longer than the last, I ask if there are other prayers. A woman in the back asks for more time of silent prayer, so we all bow our heads in silence. After a few minutes, she asks if there are any other prayer concerns and no one else shares.

Then I say that this is the time in our service to share personal testimony about the power of God in their lives. I also mention that the Bible speaks about being reconciled with your brother and leaving the gift on the altar and be reconciled before presenting the gift to God. I explain that we will take a five minute break for coffee and that this would be a great time to reconcile if you need to do so. I mention the coffee break, but don’t remember it actually happening.

My perspective changes to that of a person that needs to talk with someone else. I (as someone else that’s not me) pull aside another man and explain that I am angry at him for some reason. I don’t remember exactly what the problem was, but we spend ten minutes or so really hashing it out - it’s not a Hallmark(R) moment for a while. However, we do eventually come to a conclusion. After an embrace, we return to the group. My perspective switches back to me again as I hear a woman share of being healed of some sickness. After her, a man shares about God working in his life, but I don’t remember what he shared. A pause occurs and I ask for any other testimony this evening. No one shares. I turn to Eric and ask him to share his testimony to lead our thoughts for communion. My dream fast forwards past his testimony and the passing of plates. I pray for the bread, the body of Christ, and the fruit of the vine, which represents his blood and we all partake together in unison.

After this, someone begins to sing a ‘worship’ song, I believe it is “humble yourself in the sight of the lord”. When the song concludes, I once again pray in thanks for the sacrifice of Jesus. Upon finishing, everyone straightens up and I ask if anyone has any encouragement or word of exhortation. Two or three people share passages and speak about them. One person asks a question of the last person to share and a discussion ensues about the meaning of a particular passage. I remember thinking that I often try to minimize conflict and that I just need to let this one work out. I am relieved when it does. After a pause, I ask if anyone has anything at all that they want to share - a few thank you’s emerge for the folks that shared.

I thank the speakers as well and ask the crowd to open to John 1. I speak about the divinity of Jesus for some time. In other dreams, I am in different chapters of John and they do not go in order. Part of me is thinking that I always share from John, but that as this group continues, other series will be taught by me and others that will complete the group. When I am finished, I ask if there are any questions about my lesson. A discussion begins about the God-man Jesus and what that means. A young man, about 20, starts to move his reasoning away from Trinitarianism, but someone else in the crowd directs him to other passages. Others share and discuss various things. When the discussion ends, I ask if there are any other comments.

I then share that folks need to sign up to share their testimony and teach a lesson series in the coming weeks. I again mention the website or the printout of the website signups and encourage people that the Spirit of God gives us all something to share. I then give a benediction:

“May the peace of God be with you now and forever. Amen.”

The group then begins to talk amongst themselves. I go into the kitchen to escape the noise and grab something to eat. I look at the time and realize that we had been in that room for almost 2 hours and notice my legs are stiff. I talk to some folks, the only thing consistent in what we talk about is someone asking me, “so what do you do since service is participatory? What is your role and what are you paid for?”

In some dreams, I am still working, so I tell them that I coordinate to provide orderly worship, but that I work 9 to 5 like them. In other dreams,  I tell them that I guess I am a pastor. I’m available for counseling, visitation, work in the community, etc, all the same things any pastor does. The difference is that I don’t worry each week about what will happen on Sunday.” The last one is odd, because we always meet at night in the middle of the week in my dreams.

Once in a while there’s a vague sense in my dream that there is some tension between one member of the group and the church they attend on Sundays. Sometimes the problem is that I state my Restoration Movement beliefs on the website and that his church is not RM, nor do they like RM theology and they are concerned about our orthodoxy.

Sometimes it is a minister that wants to know, “what exactly do you think you’re doing?” They go on to explain that the first century church did this or that. In one of these confrontations, I ask if the church that met in the home of Philemon had a kitchen. He explains that a Roman kitchen is not like our modern ones, so I ask if I should remodel the house.

Sometimes there’s just a vague uneasiness about something, but I cannot put my finger on it.

In other variations of the dream, I am not ‘coordinating’ at all. Someone else is teaching a series on something - all I do is usually lead a song, if anything. I think I’ve had about a dozen of these dreams, but I’m not really aware if this was one big dream that left the impression of multiple branches, or multiple dreams. I remember last night’s dream, and that triggered the memory of the previous dreams. Before last night, I don’t remember dreaming this at all.

Anyway, that’s it. I am not sleeping much. Apparently when I do, this is going on. I just wish I could remember the good things people share in these dreams.

Blogged with Flock

I have a meeting about the home computer giveaway project on Wednesday. I hope to get some clarification of what our 2nd in command IT guy is looking for. I volunteered a solution, but he publicly mentioned his desire to make this happen two weeks ago.

One other reasons I am excited for this project is that I want to help the community at large. To the best of my understanding, this kind of thing is perfect for me. I get to do what I love and to know that I am helping kids.

Yes, I am a true believer (not in the Eric Hoffman sense of the word, but almost) in Linux, mainly because of the philosophy behind it. I know that its not pragmatic at times. I’d rather be pragmatic than philosophical at this point. What good is a beautiful project that helps very little or not at all. It’s a waste of time for all involved.

Anyway, I am looking forward to Wednesday. I’ll be certain to let everyone know how it turns out.

Blogged with Flock

Not much to say about the meeting of the First UP Conference

The Co9 is in full swing - we know where all the international events are next year, and it’s a good thing. Really, it is.

I will say two things.

One, if someone hasn’t signed, let them not sign. It is past time to accept that some are just not going to sign this thing anytime soon. Get over it.

Two, Al and Bruce on a committe together. Imagine that. Got to keep the LA continuity going, at least during this critical juncture.

Otherwise, no news here. Enjoy your Sunday, I’m off to house church at a friend’s house.

My only other question is how do you decide when you’re Pinakidion and when you’re Wax Tablet for commeting?

salguod

Wax Tablet never writes a post, but makes appearances here from time to time. Those that know me understand that this is an inside joke. Someone on salguod.net mentioned something about names and I commented something like “that’d be like calling me wax tablet”.

In May of this year, WT began making an appearance here. His first appearance came in a May 16th comment explaining the meaning of a series of mysterious numbers in one of my comments. He has also appeared at salguod.net in May of this year and possibly earlier - even Google(R) has its limits.

When does WT show up and when does pinakidion comment? Honestly, I do not know, it’s what my fingers type just before I write the comment.

Now that your question has been artfully dodged, we resume our regular writings, already in progress.

pinakidion tag

The original title was, “What I’m Famous For”. Where this title came from is anyone’s guess. Goodness, what the subconscious will generate.

LA has now marked Kip again. I say again, because Bruce and Al were signers of the 1st and 2nd letters to him. According to Gordon in Hilo, the second letter was a marking.

Maybe they just responded to a triple-dog dare.

Someone recently went to the LA leaders and told them that if they really wanted unity, they needed to give. Years and years of pulling the most zealous and brightest, pulling in money for pet projects, and being the Jerusalem of the movement has created a lack of trust. This person was trying to say that they should give back, although that is a part of it. This person was saying that they should simply give with no strings attached. This kind of giving promotes trust, love, and peace.

Being one of those that does not trust the leadership in LA, I’m not sure I would have ever seen such gifts as pure-hearted. At this point, what would lead me to believe in a pure-hearted giving to others is probably too much for the current administration to publicly admit. Am I setting a standard too high? I do not know. I do know that the begining is simply adhering to the changes promised in 2003, but that’s a different post altogether.

What strikes me about the LA church’s letter is how different it is from Gordon’s response. Gordon, er Phoenix leadership urges. LA says that if you visit them, you’re out, too. Gordon met with people that visited the Phoenix splinter group while still attending Phoenix proper. From what is stated in the LA letter, fence-sitting and uncertainty are not allowed - those who are not with us are against us.

Insert famous over-used quote from Joshua here.

Ultimately, we reap what we sow. It is fair to say that LA has been sowing this very thing for years. The time has come to reap the harvest. The irony of what we as a ‘movement’ did since 1983 is striking. We split CoC’s, we pruned churches wholesale, we pronounced our brother in the RM as dead and dying. Now we are the ones dead and dying. Dire pictures of circling vultures are painted and promises of Yet Another Restoration flow like a river.

It serves all of us right, especially LA.

I’m not innocent in this matter, either. The same is true of me as well. I did the same things. I have continued to sow other things in my life and online as well. The harvest will come for me as well.

When I first wrote here, I was very angry. It could be argued that I still am. I said a lot of things that agitated people all over the world. Big name evangelists and elders stopped by to comment. A couple of times, when I realized that the readership was larger than a few friends, I even tried to pull the plug.

It very well could be that the total disintegration of the ICoC is being allowed by God as a demonstration of his power over hubris. How does God describe Egypt? “I rose them up for this very purpose.” Then again, that would assume that the ICoC was and is important enough to be made into a spectacle. The Worldwide Church of God had a similar disintegration, yet we didn’t know about them. The UBF is having a similar disintegration, yet we know even less about them. The WCG came out of it as a member of the Evangelical churches council worldwide. What makes them distinct from many other evangelicals is only their history, not much else. The UBF had their “God’s man on Earth” pass away and they are simply fading away. Who knows God’s purposes? It could be that all these things are unrelated.

What seems certain is that more letters like LA’s or Phoenix’s are coming. Too much energy can be spent worrying about Kip’s next target. Besides, Kip telegraphs everything - if he hasn’t mentioned your city, he’s not coming there. Fact is, we didn’t do anything 3.5 years ago and it’s too late now. A message like Gordon’s was needed before the 1st letter was written by the 65.

More splitting is in the near-term future. I don’t relish saying that. I hope God will work a miracle and actually build trust amongst ourselves. Until that time, it appears like Kip’s faction, independent factions, non-UP factions, UP factions, and other splits will continue to be realized.

Even in light of God’s mercy, it is impossible to escape that we really brought all of this on ourselves.

It seems that the no. 2 IT guy at my work eagerly wants to discuss the computer idea mentioned in the previous computer post.

Thanks to mark, I asked what the goals are. The bad news is that I won’t know until the meeting takes place.

I was very quick to point out a few things that are important to note and many more I’m not aware. For now, these are issues to keep in mind.

In Jacksonville, FL, there is a recycle computer programs that tries to do printers as well as computers. I cannot imagine that being practical to us as we have no way of storing them and sorting out ink catridges. Ugh! Ugh!

Ok, seriously, here are the issues.

Internet connection. What good is the computer without a printer and an internet connection?

Microsoft will let us be a refurbishing joint and only charge $5 per license for the operating system not including MS Office. The OS would be Windows Me, Windows NT, or older versions. In January, it might include Windows 2000. There is an advantage to using Windows as that is what each computer currently has installed already.

Any version of Linux we use is free, but it still won’t have MS Office. Not only that, some programs may not be compatiable with curriculum.

We need a good delivery system and a way to identify the computers to prevent them from appearing at a pawn shop the next day.

If we do not provide printers, will we provide tech support?

If they purchase internet and we use Linux, will the provider help them to get it working? (It should work fine, but most places hear Linux and say ‘not supported’.)

This project needs space and it is at a premium at the administrative building. Not only is space needed for computers, but a working area, storage for components, storage for items to be disposed, etc.

A similar program is already in place to loan computers for up to a week and check them out like a book from the library. Will this project loose their funding? Will we be able to get separate funding? Can we merge these projects?

There’s more, but I am excited to be able to at least pitch the idea. If any of you have any ideas, please share. There is a great desire to do something good, but if there are potential issues, that need to be thought of ahead of time. Any input welcome, even “this will never work because…”

Here’s a category I haven’t mentioned in a while, Computers.

One of the higher-ups at work is looking to give away computers to families in the area. Computers are a part of the curriculum, but what happens when you cannot use one at home for practice?

The higher-up has even spoken to Micheal Dell about this.

Yes, that Micheal Dell.

I had an idea of using some variation of Ubuntu, specifically Edubuntu. The issue with that is the computer requirements to run the system. It’s low, but it reaches the threshold of our surplus computers’ abilities. A secondary goal is to reuse our warehoused computers, so we need requirements that are pretty low.

Enter Slackware.

The oldest and arguably the most conservative distro of Linux has two things that work in its favor. One is the low requirements. Two is that compiling programs for it is a snap because there is minimal customization to the kernel (like Ubuntu) or to the large pieces of software (like Fedora). If there’s not a package for that great piece of new educational software, it can be compiled pretty easily. (the only place easier would be Gentoo.)

There are a few projects that, if put together, just might be the perfect fit.

Slackware, of course
Swaret
parts of Absolute Slackware

and for the back end to mass install these computers

Slack-Kickstart

Absolute has a modified KDE package that I like. Kickstart is just convienient (no hordes of volunteers with CDs). Swaret allows for the creation of a weekly cron job to update automatically, if the person has an internet connection. Slack, as a whole, is a good framework to build a good distro without a bunch of extra packages.

I hope to be able to actually get permission to try this at work. I’ll let you know.

There was a conference, right?

(crickets chirping)

I think I’ve heard or used that word so much over the past two weeks that I am starting to introduce it in every conversation.

How are you doing, Pink?
I’m fine, have you pooped lately? My son hasn’t.

Seems that our son has been constipated since the weaning. I saw his wonderful personality evaporate while he whimpered quite a bit. We tried all kinds of things, the doctor saying try less milk, more milk, apple juice, cherry juice, prune juice. It was pretty mild until Friday night. After that, it was misery all around. The doctor said he’d be fine until his Monday appointment.

The good news is that he is now doing very well. Him and I played by ourselves and he was engaged in toys and crawling and sitting up and talking.

BTW he went to his study at Boys Town today. He is making very clear and distinct sounds in his babbling, something that doesn’t tend to happen in similar infants with a hearing loss. The researchers said that he was a star today. Compared to one month ago, he’s added an entire class of sounds. YAY.

Well, my wife and I are looking forward to getting sleep. He is falling asleep earlier than usual, I imagine he is exhausted like us. I hope tomorrow will find a more rested family.

Other Poop
Outside of his digestive issues, I had a monitor burst into smoke and flames at work a week ago. The image skewed a bit and the next thing I knew, the sound of frying bacon and a loud pop. White smoke spewed out the top of the monitor (on and off). Little flames leaked out the vent holes in the back of the monitor.

High drama.

Of course, the replacement monitor came the next day and it didn’t work. The replacement for the replacement monitor does work, but it is the exact model and age of the one that exploded.

At least it doesn’t have a Sony battery.

To make the week complete, the Sony monitor at home died. No smoke or fire, just a lack of an image. On the plus side, I have a 15″ flat panel sitting on my desk. On the down side, it is not supported by Linux very well, so I have 800×600 resolution in ‘thousands of colors’. This is Fedora’s way of saying that graphics just isn’t your thing on this computer.

Sycarion
Turns out that my friend, mrtool, has created game pieces for the L’Attaque variant I created on the game site. They are these neat little disks with numbers stamped on them. They look sweet. I hope Friday to have a board done and take pictures. Sweet.

Also turns out that I created YASD (yet another subdomain). This one uses a dictonary program called Glossword. It exists to mark the progress of the creation of the Lenga language. The grammar is outlined and I’ve created the numbers and a few special words. None of this is on the site, however. I’ll link to it when it actually contains content.

Misc
Our son’s birthday party was a success. There was some friction with the family, but our son had a good time considering that he was feeling awful. We have three pianos for him. My wife and I both play, so it was a natural gift. Yes, he plays with all three and loves them, no joke.

My work is trying to come up with ways to give away computers. I hope that I can convince them to try a modified Edubuntu installed on our surplus computers. No internet, but it will have a bunch of other things. I’ll let you know if that happens. I secretly hope that I can transition to running this program, but that’s just me.

Otherwise, not much else. I’ve been stretched and pulled in all kinds of directions. I think I even went crazy for a brief moment - considering that I’ve actually had a nervous breakdown before, I know what I’m talking about. But God is faithful and I am joyful.

Not happy, but joyful.

See you when I am more coherent. For now, a large polystyrene object is calling me.

I was wrong. The new website was not created in WordPress. For the record, the site was created/drafted in Dreamweaver.

The LA International Christian Church site, in Dreamweaver, not WordPress.

Triskaidekaphobia has the country in the throes of fear today. More specificaly, paraskavedekatriaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th instead of just the number 13) Images of Jason(R) occur to some and I’m sure that sales of 60s era white hockey masks are selling like hotcakes. Any image of bad luck makes an appearance to others. If the superstition is still around that I had as a kid, there’s a lot of silly walks on sidewalks today. John Cleese would be proud.

(Don’t step on a crack.)

Fear is overstating it. Today is more like an a stranger that shows up in random places on the calendar. It knows all seasons and all months. It doesn’t wait for a special year (Feb 29) or skip a millenium (Feb 28, 3000 is followed by Mar 1, 3000). The only rule is that it must appear on a Friday. Sure, there are various movements afoot to fear the dreaded Monday the 13th (unless it’s Columbus Day and therefore a Federal holiday), but no one is afraid of Thursday the 13th. (Which occured on April 13th and July 13th this year, September 13th and December 13th, next year) Though folks in Greece and Spain are afraid of Tuesday the 13th. (Dum da DU-UM!)

Anyway, today is sort of an unofficial holiday honored by trying to pretend that an unseen force is trying to make this particular day extremely difficult more than any other day. What makes this force so insidious is that the cycle of ‘attack’ days are part of a 28 year cycle. By the time you get used to it, you’re gone. Very few make it through three complete cycles in this world.

Tomorrow, more than one person will express relieve for making it past another Friday the 13th as if a fortune teller told them that they would die on a Friday the 13th sometime in the future.

Before leaving, one Friday the 13th factoid you should know:

• Feb 13th, 1970, Black Sabbath’s first album released.

I know, your life is further enriched by Wikipedia and the perpetual calendar spreadsheet I created a couple years ago. Just had to mention all this.

Blogged with Flock

What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?

George Orwell