my new beginning

5 days ago

"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters."

- Luke 11:23 NIV

1 week ago

"I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them."

Tagged:
Office

Notes: 611 / 1 week ago from rawrrachface (originally from decayingsun)

The Office Farewells

shed a tear during this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWTsz8Yit64&list=UUw6sbdbTWFDnjC-9Vi4g1eg&index=2)

(Source: decayingsun)

Tagged:
office

Notes: 2 / 1 month ago

take care of yourself, take care of each other, take care of our home.

Happy Earth Day friends!

Notes: 29 / 1 month ago

"I think that if you’re in a situation you feel is controlling, dangerous, harmful, abusive, unsafe or unhealthy, get yourself the fuck out of there. If it’s home, school, a relationship? Remove yourself. We have the power to be so much more, yet we so easily settle for situations in which we sell ourselves short."

- Jenna McDougall

Tagged:
Tonight Alive

1 month ago

whenever i am in a conversation about local music scenes i automatically start name-dropping like crazy

the Goo Goo Dolls

Every Time I Die

Cute Is What We Aim For

Pentimento

Cannibal Corpse

Spyro Gyra

Brothers McClurg

The Reign of Kindo

Notes: 3 / 1 month ago

i am fascinated with how we always want justice when someone else is wrong but when we are wrong we always want mercy.

i don t like how people feel compelled to hurt and sometimes even kill other people. i don t think i ll ever know why they do it either.

but then the suspects get caught and we smile and cheer and sing songs about America. it s funny how we all of a sudden appreciate law enforcement as well (we usually don t feel the same way when we re 20 minutes late to work and they pull us over for doing 65 in a 45mph zone.)

i make lots of mistakes and i don t often understand why. i have yet to kill another human but i believe that i have been to that place of loneliness and anger where i felt like i could have. i do lots of things wrong.

i try to simply live in a way that with everything i do or say, the world becomes a slightly better place.

with so many recent bombings all over our country and our world, and with today being the anniversary of the Columbine killings, life has sucked recently for a lot of people. i like to think that by doing things like picking up my trash, smiling at the person in the car next to me, not wasting my food and being honest in my conversations i am making the world a little more of a decent place.

i am not siding with killers or anything. i just know my place in this story; i am also a misfit, a reject, i also feel out of place most times, i also feel lonely in a crowded room, i get angry and frustrated and confused and i don t know what i want and i become unpredictable and do and say things i regret.

i side with people who believe that people can change, that people can become better. i like justice, a lot. but i also crave mercy. not just for me, but for all the misfits and all the freaks and all the rejects and the people who do terrible things that we don t understand.

i think we need each other. i think for justice and mercy to reach their full power and potential, we need to come together and i think that starts by taking small simple steps to making our home on earth a little better each day.

i don t know.

much love,

bennyt

1 month ago

"Be strong, live happy, and love"

- Raphael in Paradise Lost

Tagged:
Paradise Lost

Notes: 1 / 1 month ago

"Here is what I believe with all of my heart: If you struggle with pornography, God isn’t disappointed in you; He is fighting for you. He died and conquered sin and death so you can have victory in this area of your life."

- Justin Davis in 3 Lies Porn Tells You

Tagged:
porn

Notes: 30919 / 1 month ago from marchingtheskies (originally from el-tilichero)

"For what it’s worth: it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald (via wolf-cub)

(Source: el-tilichero)

Notes: 31121 / 1 month ago from yelyahwilliams (originally from yeezytaughtme)

"

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking soundbites to support it. “Wouldn’t you say,” she asked, ‘that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?” No, I said, I wouldn’t say that. “But what about ‘The Basketball Diaries’?” she asked. “Doesn’t that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machinegun?”

The obscure 1995 Leonardo DiCaprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office and it’s unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.

The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. “Events like this,” I said, “if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. Kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn’t have messed with me. I’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”

In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, “The NBC Nightly News” and other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of “explaining” them.

The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.

"

- Roger Ebert (via albinwonderland)

(Source: yeezytaughtme)

Notes: 1 / 1 month ago

the other side of the equals sign

how come there are thousands of people protesting for and against same-sex marriage in front of the supreme court? if gay people start getting married will we be affected at all? if gay people begin marrying, i see gay people becoming happier and more secure and i see straight people not even affected.

now my question is, where are the thousand of people in front of the brothels and strip clubs? where are the thousands of people in front of casinos? where are the people in front of buildings where the whole town knows there are drug deals going down daily?

why are there not thousands of people at my door? why is there not one person at my door? i struggle with pornography and lust and i love the wrong things. i spend money i don t have and i spend time doing what i should not. i don t always take care of myself and often don t care of my close friends and family. where are the protesters? how come no one is changing their profile picture for me?

let the gay men and lesbian women get married please. the biggest reason we want equality is for the benefits. gay people want to be able to leave their property and possessions to their partners. if it was just about being with someone of the same sex for life, then there wouldn t need to be law changes, we could just be with whoever we want.

if gay people start getting married, i am not affected. i may actually be positively affected; i will start seeing gay people with hope that they will get to spend their life with a partner they love and they will be able to visit each other in the hospital and not have to worry about what happens when they die.

i think we spend too much time picking sides and not enough time picking the right fights. i think we spend too much time fighting against things and not enough time listening to, or thinking about, people on the other side of the equals sign.

if you are gay or are affected by someone who is or if you truly believe in this cause, please let your voice be heard, please fight for what you believe.

but i am wondering where the people against slavery are; where are the people against pornography, where are the people against eating disorders, where are the people against gambling, where are the people against domestic abuse? we know things like rape and violence and adultery are wrong but we re not rushing those doors.

i think we love when the attention is on issues that don t matter to us. i like when all my Christian friends are up in arms on facebook about homosexuality because then no one is worried about my money problems, no one is confronting me about my addiction to pain pills, no one is rushing my door about my awful history with porn. no one is addressing my shit because we have to make sure everyone on tumblr, facebook, vine, twitter, instagram, pintrest, youtube, myspace and google+ knows where we stand on gay marriage.

i think marriage should be between one man and one woman. for life. but when someone talks to me about gay marriage, i think of the gay friends i have, and i think of the fact that over half of straight marriages end up in bitter divorce.

something is wrong. when we spend more time making sure we end up on the winning side of every social issue, people get left in the dark to deal with their problems by themselves, and that is not good.

friends, we need each other. we are a broken people, a strange race, and an often confused species. your voice matters very much but one of the greatest lies we come to believe in this world is that ours is more important than others. so instead of focusing on picking the right battles to fight, we try to fight them all and in spending all our time picking, and often changing, sides we forget about what matters more, people.

**

i want to hear your thoughts please! i will never learn and thus never grow if i don t hear why i am right, and especially why i am wrong.

not all of these thoughts are complete but i do believe in what i have written.

above all, i want to live a life where my words and actions are out of love, rather than selfishness. i want to be cool and hip of course but i d rather be known for my character rather than always siding with the majority or with whatever is trendy in the moment.

my number is 716-566-8538. i am on facebook and twitter. please contact me if you want to talk about anything.

**

much love,

bennyt

1 month ago

i think we spend too much time picking sides and not enough time picking the right fights. i think we spend too much time fighting against things and not enough time listening to people on the other side of the equals sign.

2 months ago

Break The Cycle #1

i see too many videos and read too many blogs that i feel i should share. starting with this Wordpress blog that i read this afternoon, i will try to share as many meaningful blogs, pictures, songs and videos that i can under the title, “Break The Cylce.”

there is a lot of conflict in this world but going with the flow will not get us out of it. we need to reverse a few things and start looking and some stuff differently. we are caught up in this cycle, we are born into it. and it needs to go, it needs to be broken.

2 months ago

You are witnesses of these things.

Today must have been rough for Jesus.

it s almost funny how we think we ve got it so bad, how our situation is completely undeserved and so terrible. imagine how Jesus felt riding into town, people lying down palms on the road so his donkey wouldn t kick dust up on him, knowing that these same people would yell, in just a few days time, to crucify him.

i like Passion Week. i feel like in church, people are always trying to get you to put yourself in the story, to imagine how it would be in a certain characters situation. i like Passion Week because it s all about Jesus. i like the honesty with which so many preachers and pastors tell us that this week, this church, this life, this story, is about Him, not us.

if i can relate to one topic in the bible, it is resurrection. i love the idea that we can be made new. in fact, i need to believe that because the second that i doubt that i can start over, i begin to doubt everything and everyone in my life.

i like Passion Week because i am living a story, actually i am a living story. and there has been many mistakes in this story. there is guilt and sin and hate and pain and depression and addiction and sadness and lonliness. i like Passion Week because i need Passion Week. i need a Savior because i need a sacrifice. i need somebody to tell me that they ve got me covered.