A Cat Named Oliver
Published April 22, 2011 | 
As of late I’ve been inspired to write a little, so I’ve decided to write a short story about my Oliver. Just to warm up again, it’s been years since I last wrote anything of much significance. I won’t say it’ll be exciting or even that interesting, but hey, feel free to read if you’d like. I will break it up into little chapters for easier reading, and by little I mean little. 
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My dad was military, so inevitably that meant moving. We had been living on Edwards AFB, CA when he got orders to transfer to Peterson AFB, CO. That’s roughly a two day drive by car for those unfamiliar with the space between those states. So we packed everything up in our 4Runner and little one axle trailer and left for the Rockies.
Now my parents still had a cat of their original trio, Midnight, he was about eight-teen at the time we moved. My family has always had a cat. In fact there was never a moment growing up that we didn’t have at least one. Usually we had three, and at one time four. To keep each other company and then each person of the family can have their own cat. Though, as most who are familiar with cats know, the cat has to choose you specifically. So sometimes there was an imbalance, but typically my parents would have their own cat and I had mine. So with that in mind, they knew Midnight would not be too much longer for this world so they went on the hunt for a kitten, specifically one for me. I’m an only child, so a kitten would keep me company. They had two requirements, it must be male and either grey or black. Well one day my mother received a call that a grey kitten had just come in, they invited us out to take a look at it. I was just ecstatic at the thought of getting my very own kitten. Excitement rippled through me, this was a first!
After what seemed like forever to a child of seven, we got in the car and drove to the place. As we were welcomed in there was a small grey ball sitting on a table, and I loved him from the moment I saw him. The lady told us that one of the workers had named him Oliver. I liked that too, so it stuck. He had been dumped, how anyone could just throw away such a lovely cat I will never understand. After a bit of talking they got to the business of adopting him. The feisty little kitten pounced on the pen as my mother and the lady filled out paperwork. The workers there were sad to see Oliver leave, but they were happy to know he had a family now.
He was slipped into a little cardboard carrier and I got the job of sitting next to him in the car to make sure he would be ok and not tip over. Though the whole time I kept trying to get into the box to play with him. He would slip his little feet and legs through the holes in the box to get at my fingers, and every once in a while I’d catch a glimpse of tiny greenish-blue eyes looking up at me through one of them. I couldn’t wait to get him home and out of there to play with him. I think he was quite tired of the box himself, he would let out a few protesting squeaky meows on the way home announcing that he was ready to come out.
This was my first cat. My first friend since I had moved. I didn’t even know how much he’d come to mean to me as years went by, but this was the start to a wonderful relationship. A relationship between me and a cat named Oliver.
The Growing Trend
Published September 21, 2009 | Social networking sites. They are the latest thing to sweep across the internet, nothing new perse but they have stolen the spot light. I remember when having your own personal site was a huge thing, then it moved on to having your own domain space, from there it was instant messenger and then the social networking sites hit the net. MySpace, DeviantArt, Facebook, etc. A quick and lazy way to keep up with multiple people at once. Granted it can be handy for finding old acquaintances and friends from school or work, but they also have their downsides.
Networking sites, as with anything where large groups of people mingle, are a breeding ground for unneeded drama. Just a simple comment, that might not even mean anything, can cause a huge fuss if it’s taken the wrong way. He said, she said, and then it explodes from there. Colleagues from work can find it and pass it around to the point it will hit the boss’ desk and then what? These kind of things can make or break relationships.
Or the users that bemoan every little aspect of their lives to get the sympathy and attention of those who bother to read their depressive posts. They thrive on the attention that their drama causes and so they continue to push the drama until they achieve their goal in attention seeking.
These networks harm real life everyday relationships too. How? Well you see these people everyday and you may not talk often but then they see you on facebook and pretend to be buddy buddy with you. The next time you see them they are silent again. They leave a nice comment on your photos or main page but they can’t give you a hi in person. That’s kind of sad. Is it that people don’t have the guts now to come up to someone and say something or is it just they can’t be arsed to do it?
They are havens for trouble makers, also known as trolls. These people have nothing better to do with their lives than to go around the web looking for victims to bash on, try to ruin their reputations and hurt them emotionally. Their tactics are childish and show how low people will go to keep themselves entertained or to make them feel better about themselves.
Large network sites also cause a severe case of LAZY. If asked to go visit a site or possibly shoot off an e-mail the person in question will just give a “You want me to do what? That’s too much effort, I’ll send you a private message on MySpace. If you want me to look at something then post it in your gallery.” Right, because possibly clicking a few pages away to a different site is a lot of effort. E-mails are too difficult even to check now it seems.
Theft of identities, artwork, and photography run rampant on these sites as well, and sometimes they are hard to catch. It’s so easy to just pretend to be someone else online and gather net fame, eventually they will be found out but it’s a fast way to jump into the limelight. Get attention for all the wrong reasons and have no repercussions since it is, for the most part, anonymous.
Social networking sites are a powerful tool and as they continue to grow and spawn more users they cause more damage among the general population, the youth in particular. This generation of young people are some of the most emotionally, socially constipated generations to have ever been produced in modern times. The media and parents are definitely to blame but I also think the Internet and it’s massive networking sites share in it to a certain extent. These kids do not understand how to communicate with other people. They are ultra sensitive, easily offended, and so emotionally tied to these networks that it’s almost an addiction. They are trapped in their own little virtual world.
Oppressing Women
Published June 16, 2006 | Over the centuries men have used the Bible as an excuse, misquoted it or twisted the meaning of a certain passage so they hear what they want, and often that is to oppress the “weaker sex”. Some have said that the Bible states women are not equal to men and that they should be viewed only as property, as a servant or slave. That women have gotten the raw end of the deal from day one and it is because the Bible gives men the excuse to use and abuse them. There is, in fact, no place in the Bible that belittles women; in fact it does just the opposite.
God created woman to be a helper and a companion.
But for Adam [ h] no suitable helper was found.
21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep;
and while he was sleeping,
he took one of the man’s ribs [ i]
and closed up the place with flesh.
22[ j] he had taken out of the man,
and he brought her to the man.
Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman, [ k] ‘
for she was taken out of man.”
“The Bible condones men having multiple wives and viewing them only as breeding stock”. At the time the Bible was written Polygamy was a common practice in all societies, even within the Israelite culture. However, it is not something God intended for; the Bible says a man shall be united with his wife, not a man shall take many wives.
24 For this reason a man will
leave his father and mother
and be united to his wife,
and they will become one flesh.
“Women were cursed to always long for their husbands position and men will always rule over them.” Yes, women were cursed. It was the punishment because Eve was deceived by the serpent and she broke God’s rule which was she and her husband were not to eat from the tree of knowledge. However, men were also cursed at the fall. Adam willfully ate the fruit Eve offered him knowing full well what he was doing was wrong.
17 To Adam He said,
“Because you listened to your wife
and ate from the tree
about which I commanded you,
‘You must not eat of it,
‘cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
There are many places in the Bible that extol women. The books of Ruth and Esther are just two examples in the old testament. If the Bible was for treating women poorly, these books would not have even been written. Also, had the Bible been written only by women, or focused mainly on women, the cultures in past times would not have given it credence as most every culture was male dominated.
The Bible has been and is still being misquoted countless times. Its true meanings have become twisted and mangled to fit personal or goup agendas. In a true Christian church women are viewed as equals, not property. Oppressing women is not Biblical.
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