Good Times... Noodle Salad....

Go buy this book on Amazon you can get it pretty cheap, yo.

I have to admit that the whole "MTV" thing really threw me off. Growing up watching MTV was one of the most painful things of my life. VH1 was a whole lot better. All MTV was (and I don't know if it still is; I don't have a TV) was just about 5 to 10 really boring music videos (played over and over again) and Real World re-runs and stupid little shows like Beavis and Butthead. I even got the pleasure of watching an MTV movie two years ago about some bizarre closet musician. I do not like MTV.

However, I was really surprised with this book. It seems MTVish in a way. I cannot imagine going through so much as Charlie. I mean, this book has it all... Homosexuality, woman-beaters, "love," sex, and suicide. It's almost like watching an episode of ER (the most hectic television show of all time... everything is always going on at once).

A few people from my class did podcasts on this book. Check them out right HERE.

To tell you the truth, I cannot really relate to Charlie. However, he is caring. I would like to think I'm pretty caring. Everyone has a selfish streak to them. Perhaps the true struggle between the id and the ego is not so much as keeping on the selfless side of things rather than the selfish. I will say that one should aim to be perfectly selfish and perfectly selfless. For one who is completely selfless does so because they are selfishly thinking of the right motives. The "self" is a good thing.

I have never had a gay best friend. Although I have met many gay people, and I have a few aquaintences who live alternative lifestyles. Myself, I'm a conservative Christian. Usually, the most liberal folks avoid people like me before they ask me my opinion on anything or not.

I have had a few run-ins with the homosexual community at GVSU. I made a post on my livejournal at the end of last summer explaining my views on homosexuality. I opened up my post with, "I do not hate homosexuals anymore than I hate myself." I then went on to explain that I cannot possibly condemn homosexuals as people, for I would be a hypocrite because of my own sins. However, I can state the morality from a Christian standpoint. I simply said, "homosexual sex is immoral in a Christian worldview. Just as immoral as when I swear profusely or when someone lies... no better or not worse."

I recieved 100 replies in one night. 4 of them actually read the whole post. They were quite respectful and wanted to discuss things. The rest of the people did not read it. They saw that I was a Christian who said homosexual sex is a sin. They proceeded to leave me some of the nastiest and most hateful things I have ever read. I did not even say anything bad. These people did not even read what I said at all... And because of that I was discriminated against. I really appreciated the few that read it and wanted to discuss it though. Unfortunately, I was too tired to discuss it so I had to leave them in peace.

Therefore, I suppose that I can relate to Patrick and anyone else who has been discriminated against. I find that some of the most hateful people appear to come from the "anti-hate" and "anti-intolerance" folks... Thus hating the "hater" (as they say I am) and being incredibly intolerant of the intolerant (as they also say I am). I am not just speaking of militant homsexuals, nor are all homosexuals this way. But a few bad apples will spoil the whole darn bunch for any group I guess.

Yet, you know... I think that I love people. Since when is pointing out the morality of a scenario being hateful? And since when is love for your neighbor just accepting everything people do as being, "ok cuz Jesus loves 'em." I mean, Paul the Apostle surely didn't just say everything was ok. Truth is absolute. It's unfortunate that people think that truth is relative. People percieve it that way. They paint their arguments with these beautiful little philosophies, "let's be openminded." Yet, folks like these do not intend on being open-minded. They want me to accept their views, not be open-minded about them.

Jesus was closed-minded to what is bad. I see no problem in being the same. Yet this is on an individual basis, I'm not trying to throw blanket statements over any group of people or any one action.

I would have no problem having a gay friend. I just have never been put in a position to have one I guess. Maybe some of my friends are gay. I just don't go out so much. I sit in my room and play guitar. I have 3 friends that I go to Bible study with. Other than that, I just stay in and keep to myself.

I also never had a friend who committed suicide. I know of people who have, but I do not know anyone close to me that did. I would probably be hit with a tremendous amount of who knows what. I would be devastated.

I think I can empathize with Charlie on a few different levels. But I think that is the best I can do. I have a good imagination, but I have not really experienced many of the substantial things that he has.

As a matter of fact, the book is pretty unrealistic I think. NOW, when I say unrealistic, I do not mean that Charlie and the other characters seem fake. Don't get me wrong, they do seem very real... very much so. But this is a lot of stuff to deal with for one character. How could all of that be experienced by one person? Perhaps it's not too rare, but maybe I'm just really stupid or something.

However, I know people who have had a lot of bizarre stuff happen to them that is book worthy, but usually this is a cumulation over a lifetime or something.

Perhaps the book was written that way so people from all different aspects of life could get a little something out of it. Books like this can be likened to a Chinese Buffet. If you run out of combinations, you can always just mix something together and give it a strange name and no one knows the difference... it just makes sense and tastes good.