The Visitation

Since I have been back in Philly, I have visited many people, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my visits with most if not all of them. Yet there are always those couple of people, who I always look forward to seeing but can never seem to meet up with. In fact now that I think about it there are about 4 different categories of people and I always seem to run into a mishmosh of all of them.
The 4 basic categories are:
Extended Family
These are the people I absolutely adore, I consider these people to be those closest to me. The people that I can never seem to get enough of, it is these people that I can simply be around and suddenly I feel much happier than before. These are the people that I would do anything for in life as I truly consider them to be family, I love them with all my heart and hope that they are never out of my life for long.
The Good Friend
These are the people that I enjoy seeing and would not mind doing favors for. These people are close to me, but not as close as "Extended Family" I do enjoy seeing them, but will not always go out of my way to do so. I care enough for these people that I am always willing to lend an ear or give advice and I hope that they are not out of contact with me for extended periods without the occasional check in.
The Casual Acquaintance
These are the folks who I really won't plan on seeing, but tend to be in the same circles of people as me. I care enough to never want to see anything bad happen to these people. In all honesty, I probably won't see them all that much, and I really won't mind much either way, in fact prolonged exposure to these people may cause me to get annoyed with them easily.
Vagabonds
These are the people I really could not care less about. They easily get on my nerves and frankly I don't enjoy being around them. After a while the mere sight of them or sound of their voice can make my skin crawl. Admittedly, I do not have many people who fit in this category, but it is enough that it is easily a category of its own. Odds are if your reading this, you're not a part of this category so don't worry lol.

I'm always curious if people know just which category they belong in as far as I am concerned, as well as which I fit into in their minds. If you're curious just tell me which category you think you are a part of and I will be completely honest (Time Lord's Honor) and tell you where I feel you fit.

The End of the World

Someone recently asked me what my opinion was over the whole rapture business on the 21st of May. I just thought I would share my response with you all. It is as follows:
While I am not a particularly religious man, I have been looking into the rapture recently, mostly because of the sheer amount of advertising that is going around about it. While I do think that there will come a time when the human race as we know it comes to an end, I do not think that that time is upon us just yet.
I can't help but think that the May 21st date was more or less pulled out of a hat as there is almost no real evidence supporting it. That coupled with the fact that so many different groups have chosen different dates for the rapture, Oct 21, 2011; 2012. I think that when the end is meant to come there will be some sort of track-able signs.
When all is said and done the rapture will probably come at our own hands, from the activation of nuclear warfare, or some similar method. I think that when it comes to good or evil we never need look further than ourselves, for the human race is the perfect representation of good and evil, with some individuals who live their lives whilst trying to be good and help others, and then there are the individuals like the head of BP, who care only about profit and their own well-being, knowing that they will harm others to get it, and simply not caring about those they hurt.
But basically, I don't think the rapture is upon us just yet; there will always be religious zealots, who do things like this to try and fill out their ranks, as if the end of the world will make everyone commit to their religion. I think we have plenty of time left to live our lives. But either way I think the best thing that any of us can do is live our lives to the fullest everyday and focus on being with the people we care about most.

Resurrection of the Daleks

After a Hiatus that was much longer than originally intended (pointed out to me by one of my all time favorite people...and possibly the only person who still reads this blog) Pandorica is coming back and will be better than ever. It will now fully be used for its original purpose, a repository for my thoughts, they may not always be long, but they will always reflect me in some manner. Thanks for sticking around. I'm glad to be back.

Cookies

While I am not usually the type to publish work on this blog that is not my own, I feel the need to share this story which happened to and is told by one of my favorite authors:

Cookies by Douglas Adams (author: "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy")

This actually did happen to a real person, and the real person was me. I had gone to catch a train. This was April 1976, in Cambridge, U.K. I was a bit early for the train. I'd gotten the time of the train wrong.

I went to get myself a newspaper to do the crossword, and a cup of coffee and a packet of cookies. I went and sat at a table.

I want you to picture the scene. It's very important that you get this very clear in your mind.

Here's the table, newspaper, cup of coffee, packet of cookies. There's a guy sitting opposite me, perfectly ordinary-looking guy wearing a business suit, carrying a briefcase.

It didn't look like he was going to do anything weird. What he did was this: he suddenly leaned across, picked up the packet of cookies, tore it open, took one out, and ate it.

Now this, I have to say, is the sort of thing the British are very bad at dealing with. There's nothing in our background, upbringing, or education that teaches you how to deal with someone who in broad daylight has just stolen your cookies.

You know what would happen if this had been South Central Los Angeles. There would have very quickly been gunfire, helicopters coming in, CNN, you know. . . But in the end, I did what any red-blooded Englishman would do: I ignored it. And I stared at the newspaper, took a sip of coffee, tried to do a clue in the newspaper, couldn't do anything, and thought, what am I going to do?

In the end I thought, nothing for it, I'll just have to go for it, and I tried very hard not to notice the fact that the packet was already mysteriously opened. I took out a cookie for myself. I thought, that settled him. But it hadn't because a moment or two later he did it again. He took another cookie.

Having not mentioned it the first time, it was somehow even harder to raise the subject the second time around. "Excuse me, I couldn't help but notice . . ." I mean, it doesn't really work.

We went through the whole packet like this. When I say the whole packet, I mean there were only about eight cookies, but it felt like a lifetime. He took one, I took one, he took one, I took one. Finally, when we got to the end, he stood up and walked away.

Well, we exchanged meaningful looks, then he walked away, and I breathed a sigh of relief and sat back. A moment or two later the train was coming in, so I tossed back the rest of my coffee, stood up, picked up the newspaper, and underneath the newspaper were my cookies.

The thing I like particularly about this story is the sensation that somewhere in England there has been wandering around for the last quarter-century a perfectly ordinary guy who's had the same exact story, only he doesn't have the punch line.

(Excerpted from "The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time" by Douglas Adams)

I think its interesting really, it just goes to show the misconceptions that we can all have about one another. It makes us realize, well me at least, how important it is to look at things from another person's perspective. Imagine how the story might have changed if either person had spoken up. I really feel as though we must learn to communicate better with our fellow man, or else we may forever end up with only half of a package of cookies.

Bellatrix

Some people just have a way of entrancing you so much, that you can't help but turn to mush whenever you so much as think about them. They can always seem to make your cloudy sky bright once more. You can't help but begin to think that destiny has been working on bringing the two of you together all along. Who knows maybe it has, only time will tell. Till then all we can do is hope.

Phoenix

I've had a revelation today. I've decided that there are certain parts of my life that need an overhaul, I'm quite certain that if I do not change these aspects of my life, I may not exist as long as I hope to. So this is it, I'm taking a stance, I will loose weight, I will no longer let things stress me out, and I will try to enjoy life more.
Don't worry I have no intention of changing myself entirely, just the little things. I still plan to laugh each and every day as much as humanly possible and I still pledge to help my friends and family anytime and anywhere no matter what they are going through.
I shall rise from the ashes of my former self like a phoenix, and be all the better for it.

Epiphany

People's lives are interesting. Think of your life as a line. Now think of everyone else's life as their own line. How often do you see each other, how often do you allow your lines to cross. Think of those with whom your line run almost parallel with, your closest friends or loved one's, meeting up with them at least once a day. Think of how much of an impact they have on you, it is usually more than you think of, but when you give it a thought, you can see just how much they influence you and vice versa.
There are also those with whom your life may pass only once, these people can have no impact at all on you or change your life forever, it is all just a matter of luck and circumstances in these cases.
And then there are those truly special cases. When you think of how often your lives touch you can imagine them as a double helix of sorts, with your destinies so deeply intertwined that you almost always bump into these people when you least expect. It is often these relationships that make us realize just how much we have changed in such a short time. And they can be some of the most interesting and satisfying relationships you will ever find yourself in.