I went to meet Katrina victims today. There is a church in town in my fellowship that has been, and will continue to feed refugees until either they all leave or they cannot at all. I talked to one guy, 80 years old. He was a great guy at one point he started to tear up, I held his hand. I know that sounds very tuesday's with Morrie, but he wasn't affraid of physical contact. While sitting at the table he would brush my hand. He talked about his anniversery in a few days, 60 years, he and I talked about plumming, he was a plummer for 30 some odd years after getting out of the Navy.

With other guys when I didn't know what to talk about I asked them how to make Gumbo. I have never tried to make gumbo and am thinking of trying. I can't start learning to Barbeque yet because I don't want to buy a smoker until I find somewhere more permanant. The basics of making things like these generally aren't difficult, but it is the minutia that makes them award winning.

it was very difficult for me though, do you bring it up or not bring it up, do you ask if their house is up or down. What do you do if they don't respond well at all. In a counseling setting it is different because there is a reason they are there, however in this setting I am approaching them, someone they never met, to support them.

On another note, a friend and I were talking about why they name hurricanes. I think it is because it is easier to hate something we anthropomorphize. We can't hate nature, but we can be angry at mother nature. We can't hate a hurricane because it doesn't care, unless we think of it as a person. If we think of it as a person, it isn't just about the wind and the rain, it is what Katrina did to us. It is Katrina's fault people are out of work, it is Katrina's fault gas prices are up. And also if we blaim Katrina we don't have to blaim God.

What do you think? anyone who may read? why do we Anthropomorphize (give unhuman things human traits, like names, or like saying it sees us comming) things like this? We could I dentify them with letters or numbers. But we give them names. Do you think it goes all the way back to the ancient near east where if you name something you have power over it?

God Bless all the people working in relief, and if your not and you can be, I hope God inflicts you with trials that force you to need your fellow human.

Hot hot! I am Curry Flavoured. I have a spicy personality. If you can take the heat, you'll love me, if not, I'll probably make you cry. I am not for the faint-hearted. What Flavour Are You?

There are a lot of people out there that think you shouldn't get tied up into TV shows, especially ones about vampyres and such. I know some people who will just read non-fiction because they feel like they would be wasting time otherwise. To those people I say, this post is not for you you might as well ignore it.

However if anyone else in my readership ever enjoyed watching Buffy or Angel I would really like to hear your response to this.

At the end of Buffy, and throughout the middle and beginning there was some joy. There was a high school girl who made it to dances and fought evil. There was that time when people where dying that she left and became a waitress to get over her pain. During the last season when she had the affair with Spike, which I thought was cool, she struggled with people, but at least it had a happy ending. The hellmouth is closed and the world has a gaggle of fully loaded slayers.

So I have seen Angel all the way to the end, then I started watching it from the beginning. Angel is very dark. Angel the once evilist vampyre in the world, is a good guy BUT he will never find forgivness. I can deal with that to a point, however, the whole thing with Jasmine was just strange. Conner hating the world, hating his father, Cordelia the mother of an evil thing that doesn't necissarily seem so evil. Angel does what he needs to do then there is a mass case of depression for the world until the dark knight makes a deal with the evil empire.
Lets look at Wesley, hardcore killer, sex machine, in love with a woman who will never love him. Ever set to watch her, then then then... of all things... she gets taken over buy some goddess thing that eradicates who she was. And Wesley the ultimate martyr hangs out with her anyway. In some strange way they end up loving each other, which we only know because of her anger at his death.

Now lets talk about the end... no closure. at all. And come to think of it, did Wesley kill Gunn?
Where Buffy had joy Angel had only suffering. Who knows... I might be misunderstanding, but, I feel bad after episodes of Angel, and it doesn't seem to ever get any better.

What do you guys think?

There is a hurricane going on right now. What I think about that is easy, what I don't know if I agree with is the media coverage. I watch a lot of the Daily show and they talk about fear mongering for ratings.

I honestly don't know. Is the media doing something beyond simple reporting. Is it important for news casters to be in the middle of the storm. Are reporters showing off that they are standing in the path of the storm? or is the bias different?

Well, I spent the weekend at home

I talked to my granparets a lot about their grandparents. My mother showed me a picture of a woman called little Grandma. Her maiden name was Martin her married name O'dell, she was born in 1840. This really lit my fire. My great uncle was the family historian, he died two years ago and I feel like I want to pick up the torch. I spent the last night I was home looking at the information stored in his computer and was amazed. He followed a line back to Little Grandma's parents. John Martin is the grand patriarch so far. Popular name heh, even appears a few times in Virginia's history. I am from West Virginia and had forgotten we were part of Virginia before the civil war so my father had to point out that of course he would be from Virginia, West Virginia wasn't a state yet. I am assuming his birth somewhere around 1805-1810.

The fun part however was tracing the Morris side instead of the O'dell/Martin side. I went on the internet to google and found the exact people I was looking for, I had found someone who did the work for me. The furthest back I found was in Weztel Country Virginia (Now WV) 1716. My uncle has over 600 names in the family tree.

I gather the old Bibles of my family members that pass on. I read my grandmother Wear's bible while I was home. My imediate grandmother had put an inscription in the front for me. I can't remember it exactly but it followed something like this.

"Vernice Wear was the mother of Mildred Martha Wear Isiminger Cater, the mother of John Edward Isaminger, the father of Brenda L McCreary, the Mother of Justin McCreary."

Grandma Wear recieved the Bible in 1940.

My great grandmother Cater, her daughter was born on January 18, 1907. If you check my profile you will see that is my birthday in 1979. All this was information I new, the part I hadn't seen before Was my grandmother Cater's Baptismal certificate that dated to November of 1979. She was born the same day as me 72 years earlier, but was born into Christ the same year I was born into life.

I added my niece Annalynn's name to the registry... the youngest of our kin, she has a wonderful ancestry that goes back a long way. I am glad to be a part of it.