Blistering Heat

May 30, and i'm already dying from the heat. It's insane! Sure, people love to tease us Canadians about our inhumanly cold weather and plentiful snow, but do you realise that the temperature outside is 36 degrees celcius!

No, you most likely wouldn' if you are American. 36 C = 96.8 ferenheit. How's that for the True North? Sure, you Southerners are used to it, but in a country where our temperature regularly goes more than 25-30 degrees below freezing, that's just intolerable.

To see current weather conditions at my house, click here.

I'm sure there are more severe weather changes in the world, but I haven't heard of one! Maybe international charities should be donating to the 'Poor Roasting Canucks Fund'.

The fact that i've managed to accomplish anything today is a credit to my poor, dying fan. - Yay Mr. Fan!

Cheers to you who dwell in comfort, and I hope I get to join you soon!

A Quick Update

The Truthy Report's special reports are now available via this blog's sidebar. Currently there is the ongoing feature - The Cyst List, as well as the one-time feature The DaVinci Report.

These special features will be few and far between, but as they occur they will be listed there as well.

From Porn to Ped - A Short Trip?

This blog entry is really for you if:
You've ever looked at pornography, on TV, the Internet, or a magazine.
or You don't think that porn depicting consenting adults is a problem.

If you're a man reading this, then odds are you fall into category #1 (above). I have yet to meet a guy that has not looked at porn at one time or another. Maybe they were young and curious, or maybe an experienced friend told them where to find it. The point is that we were fed it young.

As the years went on, a blessed few of us realized that we were heading down a dark path and veered off. Most didn't. Years later, many of us were still plagued by this disease of the mind. Are you on this path right now? Are you apathetic towards other people allowing their minds to go this way? Let me open a window to the future for you.

I have spoken with a number of guys and girls over the internet, who in anonymosity freely give out personal information about their lives - just not identifying information. Some of them just needed someone to listen, and some of them were trying to help others break from their chains. The consistant theme that I have gotten from these conversations is this - porn is a slippery slope. Everyone starts soft-core, but after a while that soft stuff just doesn't give you the same thrill. It's like alchohol - the more you drink, the more it takes to get that same buzz.

Once soft-core porn no longer does it for you, you turn to hardcore. This is a fast and likely unnoticed progression, as this is the most popular and most easily accesible form on the net today. Once a guy is into this, they likely are disgusted by seeing their own gender in the nude and will turn to lesbian porn so all they see is women. This horny mindset somehow ovverides your understanding of right and wrong, allowing you to lower your standards for a short time. Adding alchohol in the mix just makes this progression faster.

As sad as this progression is, it doesn't end here. Gay, orgie (groups), and strange fetishes (unusual sex) begin to pervade. This is the line that most people would agree publicly is quite disgusting. But you see, when you're hooked on porn, you'll never stay at one level - you keep getting sucked in deeper.

Abuse, control, rape, gang rape, and bestiality (sex with animals) is the second-last category of porn. This is inhumanly perverted, and no God-fearing man could possibly do any of these things. Not to say of course that they couldn't glance at them. They do. They shouldn't, but many do. To watch a sin and to take part in it are two seperate, and yet equal acts. God makes it clear in the Bible that thinking of sin and committing a sinful act bears the same penalty.

The most horrific and disgusting level of porn is child pornography, also know as kiddie porn. This vilest of evils is so disgusting that a conscience-driven man could kill himself before allowing his eyes to see it. Some have, i'm sure. The thing that we as society needs to realize is, not all people who look at this crap are perverts. God makes it clear that they are sinners, but they are also human beings who have been caught up in the lie that porn doesn't hurt anybody.

Watching a man and a woman having sex may seem like nothing more than a sexual charge, but it is really a beast in disguise.

I want to clarify something - I believe that a human being who has any grip on conscience could not possibly commit acts portrayed in child porn media. Such people should be locked away and held up to the glory of God, come fire or mercy. I do however pity those who have fallen into the imagery - those who watch but do not do. They are fathers, sons, teachers, pastors, and other trusted men that wouldn't dare commit such a sin, and yet are drawn into it just the same.

For these men - at any level of porn, whether it be soft or worse, GET HELP! Your mind is being changed by what you allow to enter your eyes, and every second you spend perverting your mind is another day of your future that you'll have to fight it.

For teens and young adults, I highly reccommend you buy and read Every Young Man's Battle.
This is the official website where you can buy the book,
or you can buy it here at Amazon.com.

For older men, as well as married men, read Every Man's Battle. Your fight isn't over - it's just beginning!
Official Website
Amazon.com

Also, you can visit Setting Captives Free for a free course on breaking the chains that porn has created in your life. They also provide a counsellor - very helpful!

You have heard that it was said, "You shall not commit adultery"; but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. - Matthew 5:27-28 (NASB)

The DaVinci Report

This blog entry can be found here:

http://www.mikelovdal.com/TruthyReport_DavinciCode.html

on it's own special page! Enjoy.

The Vibe of Verse

I don't have to explain to a music lover why song lyrics can be so powerful. For some reason, rhymed verse in combination with music just pierces your heart and connects at a deeper level than almost anything else can.

This post comes after I found, much to my amazement, that I had 48 songs that I had personally written available on my website. More amazing still, I suppose, is that I have another 20 songs just sitting on my computer - ready to be uploaded, or used elsewhere.

I don't claim to be a master songmaster. In fact, I can count my favorites on one hand. Still, I'm just happy that I found this outlet for my thoughts and emotions, when short stories or blog entries just don't cut it.

68 songs... hmm, that's almost enough to publish in a book...

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The Cyst List has a new entry - colossal, Over-Packed Websites. Click here for the complete list.

This is the way I (would've done this)

This is the way I would have done things
Up against the wall
Up against the wall
You got me up against your wall
This is the way I would have done things
Up against the wall
Up against the wall
You've got me up against your wall

That quote is the chorus of one of my favorite songs of the year - "Reinventing Your Exit" by Underoath. It's creative, it's inspiring, it's punk-rocky. It also happens to be screamo.

*gasp!*

I confess, Underoath managed to do something to my musical tastes that I never thought possible. Here I am, enjoying a screamo song.

Screamo (screem-oh), a punk-rock music style variant involving lead vocals that are screamed from the throat or chest, generating an almost unnatural sound that is neither a scream nor a yell. Actually, when some bands do it it sounds like the gates of hell were opened for a minute. Quite disturbing, I assure you.

However, on a few odd occasions, with a few odd bands, it seems to actually work. I have to be in the right mood to listen to this kind of music mind you, but I generally enjoy it.

Now, i'm not saying that i'm a fan of screamo. As far as i'm concerned, if the lead vocalist sung his lines the song would have been better, as opposed to worse. It also would have made the emotion of the song more mild however... perhaps limiting the screamo to short sections like Relient K did in their song "Softer to Me" (from their self-titled debut album).

In any case, my allowance for such things seems to have widened. In my wilder moods, you can catch me listening to:

• Underoath
• Project 86
• Pillar
• Justified
• Dogwood
• 12 Stones
• Demon Hunter (limited)

Who knew..? Oh well, for my regular listening I'm sticking to the happier stuff. Hard music sounds great, but it can be a real downer. Curious what that entails?

• Relient K
• Sanctus Real
• Kutless
• Hawk Nelson
• Stellar Kart
• Falling Up
• 4th Avenue Jones
• SoulJahz

(Among many, many others! I love my music!)

Care to Explain?

"How are you?" asks a passing stranger on the street. A friendly person would answer with something slightly personal, but publicly appropriate. They must say "i'm doing well thank you, it's a beautiful day". Or perhaps they might say "i'm alright..." anticipating that the stranger cares enough to ask why they are only feeling "alright". Such a person would be sadly naive.

If I ask you how you are doing, I care. I care because it's the decent thing to do, and as God graces me with his love I begin to care more. However, I was pre-teen by the time that I discovered that for most people this is not so. Even caring people have a badtendencyy to ask you how you are doing and then keep walking without bothering to find out the answer. A gesture of caring has been stripped down thesignificancee of a "hello", or perhaps the even less ambitious, "hey".

The odd time when somebody actually sticks around for the answer I am refreshingly taken off guard. It doesn't happen very often, but it sure is cool when it does.

So then of course I get to Part Two of my tangent on "caring". Part One was all about people not caring enough to stick around, but this next part is all about a misuse of the word 'care'.

So you've had a lovely conversation with a friend, relative, (both if you are so-blessed), or even a friendly stranger waiting for whatever you are waiting for (bus, train, plane, etc.). You say "it was nice talking to you", and they say "take care".

Excuse me?

Take care? Take care of what? How lame is that.... people used to say bless you!

Take care:
- that you don't trip and die on your way home.
- so that I don't have to see you in the hospital.
- so I don't have to say anything nice to you.
- because no one else will.
- or don't, it's not like I care.

The phrase "take care" is so overused, and so bland and meaningless that you might as well just say nothing at all and grunt your intention to depart.

Gah... "take care" is definitely making my Cyst List!

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Today's non-word is yofalt (yo-fault), when something is clearly your problem or responsibility - so deal with it! ;-)

The updated Cyst List is now available here! All future Cysts will be added there. I may also add a link to the Truthy Report's sidebar if I ever feel more ambitious...