I met up with a bunch of friends from my building tonight for 10 cent wings night.  This is the second time I’ve done a wings night with a group of friends in the last couple of months.  It is both fun and filling

Church

As many of you already know, I try to go to a different church each weekend.  I do this to widen my understanding of the different denominations in the world of Christianity.  This weekend I went to an Episcopal Church in Rockville Centre called “The Church of the Ascension.”  The service was an hour and a half long.  The church used a Hymn Book, a book called “The Book of Common Prayer” and selected passages from both the Old and New Testaments in a program available upon entering the church.  Bibles were available, but there weren’t many and they weren’t used during service.  The church itself was nice, but the Choir needs some extra practice sessions.  The sermon, which I feel is one of the most important aspects of a church service was greatly lacking.  The topic was thankfulness and gratefulness, but sadly nothing enlightening was said.  There was a Holy Communion towards the end of service in which those who took part would drink out of the same cup of wine.  I find the use of a shared cup very unsanitary.  People clearly sick would drink out of it and it would be wiped by the same cloth each time.  I will only participate when everyone has their own disposable little plastic cups of wine or grape juice.  The service itself was very similar to the services of other denominations.

Tae Kwon Do

We learned the required Yellow Belt Form (a form is a pattern of blocks, stances, punches, and kicks memorized for each belt) on Saturday.  Though I suppose “learned” is not very accurate since we retained very little of it.  It was pretty confusing and it is going to take a bit of work to get it memorized.

Law School

I did quite a bit of studying this weekend.  I have an evidence exam on Thursday, but I am not very concerned.  I should do very well on it.

Yes, science and religion can coexist.  Religion is a means of explaining the unknown.  Science is an investigation of the unknown through the developing of new knowledge derived from formulating hypotheses and using observation and experimentation to test those hypotheses.  If the two conflict in certain areas I believe that science takes precedence over religion.

The Dalai Lama in his book “The Universe in a Single Atom” states, "my confidence in venturing into science lies in my basic belief that as in science so in Buddhism, understanding the nature of reality is pursued by means of critical investigation: if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims."  As long as people do not insist on holding stead fast to religious beliefs that have been clearly shown to be false by science, I feel the two can live in harmony.”

I completely agree with the Dalai Lama’s statement and find it a shame when people feel that science and religion are incompatible.

Here are the highlights

On Friday Jess and I spent the evening dancing.  We had been working on the Tango and Salsa quite a bit this week.  The Tango is hard…seriously, I think it is the hardest dance to learn, and we’ve been having the most trouble with it.  But overall we are progressing pretty well.  I’m actually seriously considering that dance competition in November…we’ll see.

On Saturday Jess and I went horseback riding at Hempstead Lake Park   It was a very enjoyable hour long trial ride.  At one point I got a little too close to the horse in front of me and my horse got a nice kick to the face, lol.

Later that evening Jess and I went out to Ruth’s Chris Steak House and had a wonderful dinner.  They make some of the best steaks there in my opinion.

On Sunday I went to a seminar in the city, and that about raps up my enjoyable weekend

This is a fantastic video that shows the before and after process of a model being basically transformed from what she looks like before a modeling shoot to what we see in print.  Enjoy.

If there was a significant disparity between the financial status of my partner and I, then I would sign a prenuptial agreement.  The reality is that the divorce and infidelity rate in this country is fairly high and while two people may be madly in love with each other when they are getting married, several years down the road the situation may sadly be different.  I think respecting other peoples financial interests and protecting your own should not be something that should be taken as offensive but rather a practicality of life.

I do not think that the media puts too much focus on physical beauty.  People are not only attracted to physically beautiful people, but also want to be attractive themselves.  If this wasn’t the case, the fitness, cosmetics, clothing, and dieting industries wouldn’t be multi-billion dollar industries.  I believe that the focus on physical beauty by the media is a result of what viewers want to see.

I believe a person’s birthday is an opportunity to celebrate the existence of that person in your life.  It gives you the perfect chance to go out of your way to show that person that you care about them.  We live in a very self-focused world and birthdays are an obvious freebie to put a smile on the face of someone else.

So in straight forward terms, giving a gift doesn’t haven’t to be an expensive or tiring ordeal, it is just another way of showing you care.  And as for the card, generally speaking, a “dear so and so, happy birthday, from so and so” is pretty dry.  Rather I find this the perfect opportunity to tell this person what they mean to you.  And of course any sort of planned celebration is always wonderful.

I do find it a shame however that birthdays are a source of such disappointment.  We hope that our friends and family will remember it, especially those friends that are very close to us, but in the end it generally turns out that quite a few people forget, which in this day and age is pretty shocking considering that we have so many ways electronically of setting reminders.  And many those that do not forget do not put much effort in.

Why write this post now?  My 25^th Birthday is on Thursday.  Personally I feel that it reminds me to look back on all the wonderful experiences that life has afforded me in the past and look forward to the many experiences I will have as I move towards the future

I think it is completely possible to develop close relationships through the internet.  People have gotten married that have met online   I know a friend that was involved in a romantic relationship with someone in Europe for several years from meeting on the internet.  I personally however prefer to develop relationships in person