Author Archive
Alright, so the headline doesn’t quite make sense. Allow me to explain.
Recently I have been using Youtube more and more to listen to music. I am using Linux, so Spotify is out (theres some bullshit with Spotify and Wine emulation). I can’t be arsed downloading entire albums, and there are simply some songs that only exist on Youtube. So wat do? Well obviously one would want to have these songs on ones mp3 player, or simply on the computer so you don’t have to actually open Youtube and stream it. Yes?
Well, I have been trying for a long time to find a program or a website that does this, and gets good quality. For a while i used Kickyoutube, but the quality was terrible, it often just downloaded 2/3 of the song and now the website is messed up. So today i stumbled across Dirpy!
Dirpy is a brilliantly awesome website, which allows you to simply copy the youtube link into the field, and then you can download it in 128 kbps quality. I am not an audiophile, so I can listen to this just fine. And the best part, when you look away from the fact that you actually get to download high quality songs, there are no irritating adds or popups. This site is awesome!
Enjoy it, darn you. Music to the people!
Matthew 6:1-4 reads “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven. Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward. But when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”
Hide your good deeds. Do not broadcast what you have done for others, in anonymity it is even better. Essentially, these verses from Matthew say that those who broadcast what good they have done already have their reward in this life, and need not have one in the afterlife. Instead of showing others what you have done and what you will do for them, do it without reward.
As people we want to be treated well. We want other people to notice us and we have been taught that good things have rewards and bad things have punishments. This isn’t always the case. We should do good for the sake of helping someone out and we shouldn’t do bad because, hey, it’s bad. This reward system that we have set up is almost disgustingly sick. We are so greedy as people that we will not do good without a reward and will only do bad without punishments.
But I compel everyone reading to keep good deeds in the closet, hiding them from as many people possible. Do not broadcast something good for immediate reward if an eternal reward is crushed in the process.
Next, let’s talk about prayer. (It should be in the closet too!)
Matthew 6:5-6 reads “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”
I think that this verse kind of condemns out loud prayer, or at least for the purpose it serves today. In out loud prayer, who has tried to sound more spiritually minded than you normally are? Who has tried to impress others with the fantastic words coming out of your mouth? I know for a fact I have. Instead of having honest prayer, I am blending in a lie with fancy words to impress other people, not the Lord. I am glorifying myself in the eyes of others, but only condemning myself in the eyes of the Lord.
To be frank, in that action, I am being a douchebag. Out loud prayer is meant to be honest and true. It doesn’t have to be a well worded, spiritually arousing tangent about the good of others. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it just has to come from the heart.
THIS IS WHERE THAT CLOSET PRAYER COMES IN. Instead of participating in douchebaggery, closet prayer makes us Kings only in our own eyes and the Lord’s eyes. We aren’t trying to impress any other human being. There is no need to lie, because no one will hear.
So essentially, the idea to impress others only screws you. Don’t seek attention and do stuff in secret.
I love you, have an amazing day.
Hi.
So, I am currently reading a book called “the Shock Doctrine: rise of disaster capitalism” by Naomi Klein. I have not read all of it, I am currently lost somewhere in the third chapter. But it is sufficient that i feel the need to point at Milton Friedman, the guru of right-wing contra-revolution and laugh.
He is basically the guy who started the ideological movement of rightwing fanatics from University in Chicago, a group of dumbfucks that figure if you cause enough trauma to a country, you will subsequently have the opportunity to introduce a sort of *shock-capitalism* to said country because whatever opposition will be distracted by the trauma of war, invasion, ethnic cleansing, genocide, you name it. So then you have the window to introduce the ultimate free market, with deregulated toll barriers, tax cuts, privatization and the works.
So, this theory was first and foremost a theory, one of those “on-paper-only” “food-for-discussion” things. Until the coup in Chile 1973. Salvador Allende had been ruling the country for some time, democratically chosen and socialistic. Nationalisation, developmentarism, you name it. It was great. He got killed by Augusto Pinochet and his followers. The contra-revolution had started.
And the country which had been at a steady 3% unemployment got, thanks to Freidmans policy, as high as 30%. People got poor and had to spend (calculated) 74% of their paychecks on bread alone, something which before this capitalistic contra-revolution was less than 14% of their income due to price regulations. Over the course of 10 years, Freidman and his friends argued for more shock, more capitalism, less state interferance, saying it would fix everything. It didn’t. For everytime that puppet Pinochet deregulated and privatized, the people got worse off. Chile went from a stable planned economy in which its people flourished, to the laughing stock of the economical world. 307% Inflation, bitches!
Not until Pinochet got his mind twisted somewhat in the right direction and started nationalizing shit, Chiles economy got a little better.
So the point of this history lesson? It is to collectively (the best way) laugh at how the contra-revolution failed to do what it was supposed to, through free markets and privatization make the economy stable and the country rich, and instead it ruined the country completely.
No wait, that’s not funny, it’s infuriating and pathetic. Suppose we’re gonna have to keep fighting, then.
With this as my first entry to brbcoffee, I’m going to tell you about something rare, even for my hometown Bodø: Eagles. But not just that there are eagles though, most local people have seen an eagle, because everyone with an eye open can spot them from far away, gliding gracefully somewhere on the bright blue sky. To be even more specific, Bodø is widely known for their sea eagles, the most beautiful, majestic bird you can ever imagine roaming the horizon.
Anyhow, I’ve been fishing with my dad and uncle these past few days, not paying much attention to these birds flying in the horizon, but today was not like the other days. Today this 1.5 meter wide, big bird flew straight down towards our boat. I experienced something I am sure only one in a million people get to experience, 3 meters away from our boat this majestic se eagle flies, probably hungry as hell, hence its being as close as this.
Everyone knows seagulls, these awfully noisy white and grey monsters, following boats and or nesting on your rooftops. They do anything, anything I say, to get their hands on food. Whatever kind of shitty eatable thing you throw to them, they will eat it. So obviously they where feasting in our fish guts, but the second the eagle appeared they became very aware of the danger in being in its attack zone. That pack of seagulls were therefore scattered in every direction as the eagle arrived.
Big and scary as it was, the eagle frightened the seagulls so much they did not dare to pick the guts out of the water before the eagle had taken its part. The second a seagull would try to outsmart it, the eagle would bash into it and force it away. You might say eagles are somewhat bigger than a seagull, this giving the big clawed bird the absolute advantage. This was the most amazing sight ever. I cannot put words on how cool, admirable, majestic and beautiful it was. Too bad I forgot both my cell AND my SLR… We did not get much fish though!
If I ever where to reincarnate or be able to change myself into an animal, I would definitely be a sea eagle. Being the king of the sky, hovering over the ocean, and flying into the sunset sounds like a fantastic dream I would do almost anything to be in.
As you were, soldier!
Steinar
There are some religious things that religious people do that absolutely irk me. What is that, you may ask? I’ll tell you what!
I was on the facebook last night, and I commented on something about the United States not having a set language (so
people from other countries shouldn’t have to learn English to come here) and not being a Christian Country—because it isn’t—and some young girl (young being like… fourteenish. DON’T JUDGE ME) who has grown up in the Bible Belt of West Virginia all her life started getting pissed at me over it. This gal told me to “not ever start about Christianity, please and thank” because “God is [her] savior and [she] loves him with all of [her] heart.” Apparently she assumed that because I don’t believe the exact same thing as her, she would need to announce it to my three hundred facebook friends that she loves God with all of her heart—making it look like I disagree with that statement.
I used extensive examples showing how Christians justify their hate through their Religion—and she even angrier, because apparently Christians are blind and don’t see what they have caused. Justifying hate through Christ is disgusting. The goal of Christianity is to be like Christ, and I’m pretty sure Christ wouldn’t want to kill “them queers” or hate people of other religions. We justify hate and make excuses for not loving. It is absolutely disgusting. The girl informed me that the hate is okay, because Jesus died for our sins. That is ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NOT THE CASE. (the hate part, not the Jesus part…)
OKAY, so as Christians we say that Christ died for our sins, allowing us to sin. That doesn’t mean that Christ wants us to sin or that our sins are “okay.” We are taking that forgiveness and using it as a primary shield against eternal damnation instead of a safety net, as it should be. As Christians, as religious folk, as human beings, we should strive for perfection though we know it is unattainable. We cannot accept our sin and not try to change it because Christians aren’t perfect; trying to change that hate—that sin—is what separates the men from the boys. God understands that we make mistakes, but he sure as fire expects for us to try to resolve those mistakes and those bad habits we have. We cannot use Christ’s sacrifice as an excuse for our own sins—that’s not the point.
Like many would say in this region, we cannot justify “killing them queers” or lynching those who do not follow Christianity with our own religion. God wouldn’t want that. Pick up the mother fucking Bible and read it yourself. Yeah, yeah, I know about Leviticus, that’s the one that also said not to crop in cycles, wear polyester cotton mixes, or breed mules. What the hell did Christ say? To love thy neighbor? I guess He only meant the Christian neighbor. Or the white neighbor. Or the male neighbor. Certainly not the “queer” neighbor or the non-Christian neighbor, that’s ridiculous! God forbid we start loving other people and treating them correctly. It’s a shame that as Christians we are such disgusting people.
That’s all. See you next time.