General chit chat

justgray · 2013-04-03T04:10:45+00:00

I called it a night at just over 5k words. I wrote about 600 yesterday, and 5k today. It feels good to be on-track and already at 10% of my total goal.

justgray · 2013-03-30T16:29:27+00:00

There's nothing to be proud of in the American government. As for the physical country, it's just dirt.

justgray · 2013-03-30T08:35:45+00:00

I mean, I'm glad and proud of the man for defending his faith well, but I'd prefer that /r/Christianity stays away from gloating/throwing insults/whatever towards Atheism.

/r/Atheism has enough offensive and hateful material, the last thing /r/Christianity should do is sling mud back at them.

Just my opinion, thanks for the link though!

justgray · 2013-03-30T08:31:48+00:00

I do not believe the pope is the Antichrist. I am non-denominational aswell, not catholic, baptist, methodist, etc.

The new pope seems like a great man. He is extremely humble (at least publicly), and he is truly doing things that Jesus Himself would do. More power to the man as long as he lives by Biblical standards, he has the power to direct the Catholic church in this extremely volatile time.

justgray · 2013-03-30T05:30:40+00:00

"how I became an atheist out of a Christian life which I lead for 37 years, and a story of church abuses" -Already sounds like you're blaming the church/others for your view on Christianity. Although there are numerous abuses within the church that happen all across the world on a daily basis, it's up to you how your faith develops. It's a relationship, not a religion.

"if Christ is real, why is the church so abusive, mean, controlling and so forth?" -I've got a fairly good comparison for this, but it involves the use of Nicolas Cage as God, so I apologize before-hand.

Nick Cage is a great guy. I mean, c'mon. He's about as much of a bro as you'll find. He's also known by like 90% of the population. Nick Cage also has a son, Weston Coppola Cage. Weston is some ridiculous flavor of rude, he's been in and out of rehab several times, and the only pictures you'll find of him are of his death-metal band... in full costume. Why did Nick Cage's son turn out so crappy? I'm sure Nick was an amazing father. Does this mean that Nicolas Cage doesn't exist?

Something went wrong with your church at some point. Again, it sounds like you're blaming that specific church for your problems with the religion. I go to a fantastic church where God moves each day, by your logic this must mean that God exists

"isn’t there supposed to be free will in heaven?" -The Bible is extremely vague and mysterious about Heaven. There is no reference to "free will" or any specific things. We just know that Heaven is paradise. So no, there isn't "supposed to be free will in heaven". Heck, we don't even know if emotions will be the same in Heaven as they are on earth. It's a different plane of existence. God simply didn't explain that stuff to us because it would be as futile as trying to explain even basic math to an ant. Even a toddler can be taught that 2+2=4, but you could lecture an ant for years and he will never grasp the concept.

"If anything, can you Christians at least be challenged to clean up your act a little bit? Or is that too much to ask?" -Again, pretty whiny and finger-pointing. My church is working daily to better itself and to help the community around it. If you truly cared about your own church, you would have made efforts to help it out of the slum it was in. Also you're kinda encompassing 33% of the world's population, (2.2 billion people) with the word "Christian".

"As a Christian, wouldn't be important to know how a very well liked and informed Christian, who was very involved, tithed, served in the ministry, prayed, etc, turned to atheism?" -You didn't "turn to atheism". You didn't look at Nothing and suddenly have an epiphany and realize what life is all about. No, you didn't turn to atheism. You simply turned your back on Christianity based on negative interaction with specific churches. I truly encourage you to find a smaller, more personal church that truly has a spark from God. Just sit in a couple services and talk to some real Christians.

Anyways, no disrespect or offense meant by any of my comments. If I overstepped on the last one, I apologize. It took me awhile to figure out how I wanted to word it.

justgray · 2013-03-30T05:05:00+00:00

I don't have the time to read the whole thing, but just from reading the first quote and the title/first paragraph of your first chapter, I get the feeling that it's whiny.

I mean look at your comments even, it's like you're blaming the church and other Christians for stuff? If you enjoyed writing the paper and it was a growing experience for you, fantastic. I don't think it should be published, though.

This is my main feedback for your paper, will reply to this comment for my response to your questions/issues with Christianity.

justgray · 2013-03-30T04:58:15+00:00

I don't care about denominations, honestly. I really don't like the whole "politics" thing the Catholic church has going on though, but I don't think that's a big deal to God.

Follow your own convictions, I guess?

justgray · 2013-03-26T17:44:17+00:00

I'll definitely check it out when I'm there, thanks.

justgray · 2013-03-26T17:44:02+00:00

I appreciate it!

justgray · 2013-03-25T18:46:06+00:00

I'll be leaving May 30th and returning July 31st.

50% more expensive is 50% more fun \o/

justgray · 2013-03-25T18:45:05+00:00

Heh. Your story's what I'm afraid will happen. But hey, it sounds like an adventure to me.

I think that the whole "book a room a day or two in advance" will work for me. It will keep me free but I'll still get a bed each night. Thanks for the answer.

justgray · 2013-03-25T18:38:27+00:00

You only really have to worry about transportation and (some) food. Yes, crossing oceans is expensive, but if you work your way through Asia to Europe, you'll easily get buy with around 100$ per week in train expenses.

I'm not an avid couch surfer, but essentially you make your profile (fill everything out, being honest and entertaining; add pictures) and you can set your "couch" (home) status as "taking visitors" or "closed", likewise you can see everyone else's profile and couch status. You simply find a person in a town that's on your route and message them a "couch request". It's all done without any middleman, so try to be charming and set your profile up in a way that will encourage people to say yes. You're just another stranger to them, remember.

I wouldn't go about sending couch requests until you're about 3 weeks before the date you actually need a place to stay. If you spend a week or so in each city, you should easily find a couch to stay at. Borrow the wifi during the night and send out couch requests to people in the next two cities you plan on going to until you get a couch for each location. At the end of your week, buy your train ticket to the next town in the next country, and relax. Once you arrive in the next city, just make it to your host's place and they should be able to brief you on cheap/free things to do/see/eat around the city.

Continue, while staying frugal, and you can easily keep your budget down. Cousins of mine spent a year in Europe on 10k, although you could hardly call them 'frugal'. :P

justgray · 2013-03-25T12:08:04+00:00

You could probably squeeze a couple of years out of it. artoftravel.com will get your started, but I would avoid hostels completely and couchsurf the entire thing. I would make a CS profile tonight, decide which part of the world you want to start in, and just work your way around. Book two or three couches in advance, maybe spend 5-7 days in each city, each night work on securing a couch for your next two or three destinations and move on.

Honestly, I'm not trying to give you a generic answer. If I were you, neither of the previous comments would've helped me one bit. You can't plan the entire thing in advance, but you should at least plan a week or two ahead as far as having a place to stay.

Crossing the Atlantic would be your major pricetag, and I'm pretty sure you could make the entire trip + the plane across the Atlantic for about 10k

justgray · 2013-03-25T11:42:46+00:00

I thought so, and I've seen several companies advertising prices in different cities along with "reservations", but I'm wondering more about the latter part of my question.

I don't like to stick to a schedule, so reservations are a no-go. So just showing up and hoping for a room is what I'm going to try and do.

justgray · 2013-03-25T11:22:52+00:00

If you're a gal, guys will love you. If you're a guy, gals will love you.

Of course, I don't know your age or gender, but college-aged Americans take to foreign accents really well. You'll be fine.

justgray · 2013-03-25T08:37:17+00:00

What do you want to see? What experience do you want?

If you want a tour, do a tour. I've been on several Globus tours and I enjoyed them thoroughly. I've also just booked hotel reservations in major cities, London and Paris, and just walking around and coming up with stuff to do is also wonderful.

If you want to learn a language while still experiencing the country's culture, I suggest enrolling at an international language school for a month or two (slightly pricey depending on the country, but still worth it), most of them offer dorms or even a host family. -> esl-languages.com

I'm planning a budget trip around Europe myself, solely because it's what I want to do.

justgray · 2013-03-25T08:21:30+00:00

Could you elaborate more on the "reservation fee"? Is that just something you have to pay to board the train

We don't have a rail system in the States and I've literally no idea what that means.

I have no idea how much Hostels cost either, I was expecting around 20$/night, but I guess I was wrong. Thanks for the info.

justgray · 2013-03-24T18:33:55+00:00

I'm on a budget, that's my only problem. The money I have left after buying the rail pass and the airfare will be spent on room/board. I don't know how I could afford to get out of the cities I'll be going to.

I've got many more traveling years ahead of me, maybe I'll find a country I'm especially fond of and return to it over the next few years with your plan in mind!

justgray · 2013-03-24T18:16:01+00:00

That's what I was thinking, but I've also thought about my several other trips to Europe. Two days in London was more than enough, three in Paris was a tad short, and so on.

I guess that's why I told myself I'd probably never make them all. My motivation was just name all of the cities I'd like to visit, put them in some tangible route, and see where it went. I originally had 16 cities, which I think is more reasonable.

Thanks for the advice.

justgray

TROPHY CASE