JacobBalson's Xanga

Monday, June 29, 2009

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:31:06 GMT

Bwahahaha. The MAN hasn't blocked Xanga at work, and I'm doing everything I can to stay awake barring using heavy machinery that might end disastrously.

Samantha Matthews: 5 times per Spiderman 1 & 2, or collectively? You're welcome for Owl City. You can thank my friend Katie Thompson from Illinois if you like. I owe her for Owl City.

The most I ever saw anything in theaters was Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. 3 Times. But in different places (including Nashville).

I've eaten 4 suckers tonight. Tangerine, Banana, Watermelon, and something else, I don't remember. I'm excessively tired. I ran through all my paperwork. I don't have the mental capacity for much except random rambling and simplistic observations of what has been going on. I ate 2 burritos as well.

Haha. Michael Buble's version of Try A Little Tenderness came on. This weekend, Davey told me he wants to sing Try A Little Tenderness at Joe and Linda's wedding. Linda = my aunt. He wants to sing Otis Redding, though, not Buble. There are accents on the e's in his name.

Wedding season is over, I believe. Excellent. On the horizon: making a cake for co-worker Lisa's b-day. Gonna be an american flag. And if you tell me to make the blueberries for the stars, I'll tell you what I told everyone else: The STARS AREN'T BLUE! The blueberries can be the background to the stars.

Lisa O'Dell is staying over for a night on her way back to Illinois! She's moving back! I get to see Rock at some point, as well as meet his sister, my heroine, and the only Powell i own, Mindi. Patches has Shaina, even if she's mostly Mindi's. And we all share Rock.

Whatcha doin with a suitca-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-se? Tryin to hit the ground with both feet runnin. Aren't you trippin on your shoela-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ce? Stealin away on a sunny day.

I think Sarah J and her friend are comin from Nashvegas at the end of July.

I wanna go to lots of concerts. I don't have lots of money, or time, and all my favorite artists hate me and only come through where I'm near on weekdays.

I "fell off track" with God months ago, and it's been an interesting trip back. I almost gave it all up. Which felt ok. And since then have found more freedom, made more mistakes, been more honest, and experienced more forgiveness and redemption than ever before. I haven't been to church in months. I don't wanna go back to the methodist one because a) it was ok, but not great. and b) when I gave up on God i dropped the video project I was working on for them, and c) I never heard from them when I just abruptly stopped going after going weekly. Maybe they figure I moved. But i never heard another word from them. That reminds me. I lied to the baptists when they came to my door. Everything I told them was true, except I said I was going to church.

I found out I can only drink fruity alcoholic beverages. Hard lemonade and some smirnoff ices and sex on the beach are the only things i've even remotely liked so far. still never been drunk, and am happy with that. i don't really like alcohol, but the aforementioned things taste good.

built a patio with my family. that was a lot of fun. It was cool to see it come together.

I'm proud of my brother matt, b/c when i see him with grace (my niece) it's just awesome seeing how he loves and cares for her. It's fantastic. And she's very cute. I'm glad she fell asleep in my arms instead of crying forever.

oh, right. praying more is on my list, which i'm doing, but it doesn't sound at all like it used to. it certainly doesn't follow the ACTS model and sounds way more like me talkin with a friend, which rocks. i wanna find a good church, but i have no clue where to start with that in a place like this. I'm biased, i don't like it here very much, and i've done a good job convincing myself that i'll only find boring, terribly conservative churches that treat the word "contemporary" as a sin. Maybe that's not true, but I don't want to wander into every church in Piedmont. I might be here longer than initially thought, but that doesn't mean I wanna just go through every building seeing what they have to offer.

rambly blogging is more fun than regular blogging, or angsty blogging, or deep theological blogging.

I realized tonight that I have this random song all about smoking pot. I didn't know that. It's called I've Got 5 On It. I don't even know what that means. it came off this british pop music sampler (not british music, necessarily, but music popular in england).

I'm almost done with bass career mode on Guitar Hero: World Tour, played mostly on Hard (unless I couldn't beat the song, then on Medium).

I was in Joplin today. There is a magic the gathering game for the XBOX 360. I played it with Patches. It was fun. I won't buy an xbox still, but i wish i had one so patches and i could play it. I like cities that go up rather than out.

I get about a million ideas a day for random stuff, but i never write them down, so often nothing comes from them. Like movie ideas. Really random stuff. I think at this point I just wanna capture random, semi-pointless stuff on video.

Davey and I have similar senses of humor sometimes. It was a lot of fun joking around with him this weekend. Even when he and i made the same joke a few seconds apart (him first), but I totally thought he was making a different joke, so I went on to make the same joke he had just made.

Music stuff:

+ I just found out tonight that Darkness Darkness by Richard Shindell is really a cover of the song by the Youngbloods.
+ I've been reminiscing in a lot of old music, and have been tempted to get the old Alkaline Trio songs I used to love, but the songs just don't carry the same weight with me anymore.
+ I know a lot of you listen to Anberlin, but really, all of you should. I could recommend a list a mile long, and even though their cover of Baby Please Come Home is not as good as Death Cab's, and I'm not a huge fan of their cover of Like A Rolling Stone, most of what you'll hear is gold. Solid gold.
+ I'm pretty sure Ben Gibbard's brain is made entirely of music. And Samantha and I decided he and Zooey Deschanel need to produce scores of musically brilliant children. The world needs their offspring.
+ I do not like the Apologetix, and every time one of the two songs I have comes on, I cringe. Especially Boulevard of Both Extremes. I don't know why I still have it.
+ I've missed Red Sweater by the Aquabats, and I'm glad it found its way back home into my collection.
+ For some reason, I figured for a long time I wouldn't like or even be interested in Ben Folds without the "Five", but I like his stuff. I think it annoyed me because so many girls I knew seemed to be pretty obsessed, and anytime a large group of people that share a similar trait like something, i get skeptical.
+ Soundtrack Songs have become a larger part of my library recently.
+ Random bands/songs that are relatively new to me (with a favorite song in parentheses): Paramore, Katie Gray, Cartel (A Minstrel's Prayer), The Decemberists (16 Military Wives), Del Amitri (Tell Her This), The Eels (I'm Going To Stop Pretending I Didn't Break Your Heart), Fountains Of Wayne (Fire In The Canyon). More to come later. Tired now. 2.5 hours left of work.

Back to relevant magazine with Zooey on the cover :)

Excerpt

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:49:40 GMT

"More sports for everyone, group spirit, fun, and you don't have to think, eh? Organize and organize and superorganize super-super sports. More cartoons in books. More pictures. The mind drinks less and less. Impatience. Highways full of crowds going somewhere, somewhere, somewhere, nowhere. The gasoline refugee. Towns turn into motels, people in nomadic surges from place to place, following the moon tides, living tonight in the room where you slept this noon and I the night before.
Now let's take up the minorities in our civilization, shall we? Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don't step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did. Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca. Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said. But the public, knowing what it wanted, spinning happily, let the comic books survive. And the three-dimensional sex magazines, of course. There you have it, Montag. It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time, you are allowed to read comics, the good old confessions, or trade journals."

Ray Bradbury.

Tired of it

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:17:15 GMT

So, here's a rant a long time in the making...

I'm sick of being seen the way I am. I refuse to be treated like this any longer. I will no longer be seen as naive, foolish, etc... For years now I've been the weak one. That's over now. I've learned that this world doesn't have as much room for nice guys as it would seem. Or I've never learned to be nice and have a backbone. Well, I'm getting one. I won't be walked upon anymore. If you talk down to me, expect a big response. If you treat me like a child, I'll show you how big I am. If you get pissed at me for something, or treat me poorly, you can expect a fight. I've taken a lot of things lying down for years. You can't expect that from me anymore. Think about our relationship. Do you see me as equal? Do you see me as somebody you respect? Well you better. If you don't, there'll be wrath. I'm not gonna be anybody's bitch. Don't get me wrong, I like to do things for people. I like to make people happy. But I will NEVER be walked upon again. The truth is, I no longer need people like you in my life if you're going to be superior. If I don't like how it is, you're gonna hear about it. I'm not weak, even if it seemed like it.

And I won't stand for anymore bullshit or lies. If you're not straight with me, we're done. So don't fake it with me. Don't act like we're closer than we are. Don't say you're gonna do something you won't do. Don't play up to me.

I'm leveling the playing field. I know I've done some things I shouldn't have. I've made promises and not kept them. I've started ideas and not followed through. I've been the bad friend/brother/son. But that's done. If it's not gonna happen, I'll tell you. This is how it's gonna be from now on. I have had more than enough of the crap people give in this world, and I've given enough of it, probably.

This applies to everything. Job. Friends. Family. I'm not gonna be the quiet one, the weak one, the boring one. I'm coming up. Here's to change...

Sidenote: I'm quite content with being free. I can breathe so much better. Who knew? If this statement makes no sense to you, more coming soon.

I don't understand...

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:06:43 GMT

According to Samuel 23, these were David's last words:

"David, the son of Jesse, speaks --
David, the man to whom God gave such wonderful success,
David, the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
David, the sweet psalmist of Israel.

The Spirit of the Lord speaks through me;
his words are upon my tongue.
The God of Israel spoke.
The Rock of Israel said to me:

The person who rules righteously,
who rules in the fear of God,
he is like the light of morning,
like the sunrise bursting forth in a cloudless sky,
like the refreshing rains that bring tender grass from the earth.

It is my family God has chosen!
Yes, he has made an everlasting covenant with me.
His agreement is eternal, final, sealed.
He will constantly look after my safety and success.
But the godless are like thorns to be thrown away,
for they tear the hand that touches them.
One must be armed to chop them down,
they will be utterly consumed with fire."

I can't seem to wrap my mind around these words.
The first paragraph, with all its descriptions of David, is beyond me. While he merely describes himself as a son, a leader anointed by God, with all he has done owed to God, and a writer, I don't think I would ever think to talk of myself that way, regardless of position. So what makes him say these things? I mean, I could say "Jacob, son of Ronald -- the one to whom God has given some successes, the one who seldom knows God's calling for his life, the mediocre geologist/filmmaker/friend". I don't know if it's a lack of confidence, or a lack of vision of what has actually happened in my life, but clearly David had some kind of perspective I don't have. My resume here does not sound as impressive.

The second paragraph is one with which I am a bit more comfortable. While I don't often know for sure when it's God talking, I know there are times I've distinctly heard from him and times he's spoken through me. So we're ok here.

The third paragraph, I could see this one in a few different lights. It could be a description of how David ruled to be used as another piece of his resume, kind of a summary for his memoirs maybe. If that's the case, I definitely don't have that opinion of the things I do in life. It could be a reminder to himself of what a king ought to be. Or it could be a message to future generations of rulers, passing down wisdom he gained during his tenure as king. If those are the case, I appreciate it. Sometimes we have to take stock of what we have done to learn a lesson from it. Other times it's important to tell people what we have learned. We should pass on the crucial lessons. And then I can learn from my predecessors, gaining wisdom from their experience. This way the generations after us can move forward.

The final paragraph is tough. The first half sounds good. As my last words, a comforting message of God's promise to me, to my family would be reassuring. It's like knowing you're about to die, leaving behind a family, and ensuring them and yourself that your life insurance is in good order. It is much more comfortable to leave something (a job, this world) knowing that the things you have invested in will survive and flourish long after you're gone. So God's promise in this sense is his insurance policy.

Then the last part: Is it a warning? Or is it a sign of how much David despised the godless? Obviously, I'd prefer to think it's the former. Either way, it sounds final. Maybe it's just this crazy New-Testament-Grace world I live in, but for some reason that passage just sounds wrong. I suppose the other option is that I don't feel the same as David. Has my hand been torn so many times I don't notice? Am I comfortable with the fire? Am I unwilling to chop down? Are we supposed to? That sounds so vicious.

So when it comes down to it, I am not a man like David. I don't understand him. I think if I met David today, we might not get along. He seems to be the opposite of me. Confident, self-assured, ferocious. I tend to consider myself more quiet, lacking assurance and confidence. But even if I had them, I might still not understand David.

Maybe I understand more than I knew.

Feel free to share thoughts...

Have I won Monopoly but forfeit my soul?

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:58:18 GMT

That line has been in my head all night.

In other news, here's an awesome interview with Reese Roper, courtesy of a guy from Chicago and Relevant Magazine!

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/pc_article.php?id=7690

Here's another good article, especially if you care where hip-hop is going... Interesting.

http://relevantmagazine.com/releblog/music/why-hip-hop-died/

And check this out! http://www.takeastandrecords.com/index.php?artistID=5 Read the About section.

Ok, that's all for now.

I wish I had thought of a costume...

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:00:26 GMT

Yep, it's Halloween. And even though I'll be sleeping during the day, and working throughout most of the night, I wish I had thought of a costume to wear to work. With the schedule I keep and the amount of Buffy I've been watching lately, I should be a vampire... If I had people to be with, and the resources, I think I'd be Spike for Halloween. It'd be another excuse to try bleaching my hair (since I failed at that 5 years ago when I tried). Anyway, so my Halloween will not be the most exciting. This weekend should prove to be interesting enough, though...

For whoever hasn't heard, I wrecked my lil Dodge Neon Monday night. I was driving home from a good weekend in Macomb (which included a banquet, two scary movies, a corn maze, hanging out, food, and catching up on sleep so well that I made myself and the Johnson's late for church). Anyway, as I was approaching Granite City, IL, a deer came out. In my memory, she was huge. I tried to slow down and swerve out of the way, but I hit her. Hard. She shattered the passenger side of my windshield, broke the turn signal cover, knocked my mirror down and significantly dented my door. Also, she possibly dented my hood. So I made a ton of phone calls. The police. My parents. My sister. My insurance company. Work. The police came to help out, my parents told me what I should do, my sister picked me up (she lives closeby the accident, maybe 30 minutes), obviously the insurance company took all the info for the claim, and work was informed that I would be able to make it that night. So I got everything out, put it in Eleanor's car, and we headed to her boyfriend's blues bar (he's a bartender) and my car got towed. So we hung out at the bar for a while, then went back to her place. Most people would assume I would go to bed, I think, but nope. I stayed up until 3 AM for some good conversation.

I got up earlier than I wanted to, called the insurance company, a body shop, enterprise, and my parents. Then I went and picked up a rental car (A Kia Rondo). Then I packed up and drove to Piedmont. My buffy dvds were waiting for me. Sweet. Work tuesday night was rough. I had to stand around outside for 8 straight hours while we LMG'd a 1 foot stage of 1 hole for the whole time. That stage took grout for 12 total hours. Intense. Ok, maybe intense was a crappy word choice. How about "that's a lot of grout."? I was, aside from being cold, really tired. So I was falling asleep standing up. That's generally bad and frowned upon. And actually, one of our cart operators just got fired yesterday for sleeping. Though I think he was sleeping for a long time, as opposed to just a second, like when i was falling asleep. It's rough to try and stay up for almost 24 hours straight. I worked last night, and was falling asleep a little bit then as well. Not as bad, but I still hadn't slept much. Lisa from work was making fun of me because she'd be talking to me and i guess my eyes would just kinda drift off every once in a while. Tonight is much better, as I think I got a whopping 7 hours of sleep this morning/afternoon.

I got the car situation with the neon handled. The insurance company totaled it out. My parents will get $864 from it. The new car situation is still a bit up in the air, and I'm going home this weekend to take care of it. I have been looking at cars since this summer, because I was convinced the neon wouldn't make it much longer and that I would want a new car. So I had it narrowed down to the Honda Civic (if I had more money, it'd be the civic hybrid), the Honda Fit (like a civic featurewise (good), but cheaper and a hatchback), the Ford Fusion or the Ford Focus. My stepdad and my mom made me an offer on their PT Cruiser, but I didn't want that. So then they made me an offer on their Honda Civic. I have yet to exactly nail down how much they'd want me to pay, but that shouldn't be much of a challenge. Then I talked to my brother, and since he and his wife are going to have a baby, they were thinking maybe they'd take over my mom's car (the 4 door civic) and I could take theirs (the 2 door civic). A 2 door car would be fine for me, but a pain for people with carseats. So unless that were to prove to be a ridiculous investment, or something else amazing comes along, I'll likely end up with the 2 door civic. And it'll be terribly convenient, as I don't have to go car shopping, or worry about the down payment, or sales tax. Yeah, I spose I'm missing out on a chance to build credit, but that's ok.

Seeing people this weekend will also be fun and interesting. To say the least. I'm sure it'll work out well. :)

Ok, this entry was longer than i thought it'd be. I think sometimes these end up more for me than anyone else. A way to get a hold of my thoughts and the recent happenings in my life. I've been re-reading a lot of old entries lately. It's an interesting thing to see what you were all about back then. I have a feeling I'm going to get some of that back soon. We'll see. I hope I do.

I have to say, to end this, I was surprised by Dolly Parton's "Jolene". I've heard the song done by many artists, and liked it each time, but I really like the original as well. I was impressed with the guitar especially, but the overall song is good. So congrats Dolly, you surprised me.

be warned, all ye who enter here... a swear abounds within...

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:42:25 GMT

reasons I am an amalgamation of John Cusack characters:

"I've been listening to my gut since I was 14 years old, and frankly speaking, I've come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains."

"I can see now I never really committed to Laura. I always had one foot out the door, and that prevented me from doing a lot of things, like thinking about my future and... I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open. And that's suicide. By tiny, tiny increments."

"It would be nice to think that since I was 14, times have changed. Relationships have become more sophisticated. Females less cruel. Skins thicker. Instincts more developed. But there seems to be an element of that afternoon in everything that's happened to me since. All my romantic stories are a scrambled version of that first one."
-High Fidelity

"Jonathan: Maybe I am just getting cold feet.
Dean: I'm telling you right now British women do not age well. Eight years ago she was a luscious treat, you know, she probably looked like, you know, Baby Spice, now she could look like...
Jonathan: Old Spice."

"Jonathan Trager, prominent television producer for ESPN, died last night from complications of losing his soul mate and his fiancee. He was 35 years old. Soft-spoken and obsessive, Trager never looked the part of a hopeless romantic. But, in the final days of his life, he revealed an unknown side of his psyche. This hidden quasi-Jungian persona surfaced during the Agatha Christie-like pursuit of his long reputed soul mate, a woman whom he only spent a few precious hours with. Sadly, the protracted search ended late Saturday night in complete and utter failure. Yet even in certain defeat, the courageous Trager secretly clung to the belief that life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences. Uh-uh. But rather, its a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan. Asked about the loss of his dear friend, Dean Kansky, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and executive editor of the New York Times, described Jonathan as a changed man in the last days of his life. "Things were clearer for him," Kansky noted. Ultimately Jonathan concluded that if we are to live life in harmony with the universe, we must all possess a powerful faith in what the ancients used to call "fatum", what we currently refer to as destiny."

"Maybe the absence of signs is a sign."
-Serendipity

"I'm a paranoid schizophrenic. I'm my own entourage!"
-America's Sweethearts

"The rain on my car is a baptism, the new me, Ice Man, Power Lloyd, my assault on the world begins now."

"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."

"You probably got it all figured out, Corey. If you start out depressed everything's kind of a pleasant surprise."
-Say Anything

for the record

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:06:44 GMT

I really wanted to title that blog "it's plain to see evil inside of me is on the rise", but I didn't want anyone to take it weird.

it's plain to see some kind of harmony is on the rise.

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:31:41 GMT

I write to you, whoever reads this, while I wait for Plant 1 to run through a couple of Alpha mixes, plant 3 to start back up on Foxtrot mixes, or it to be time to do another VICAT test. Which means nothing to you all, i'm sure.

Turns out xanga is one of the few sites not currently blocked at work. I don't plan to blog from here often, but I have very little to do this friday night.

So I'll catch you up, I suppose. I'll just pretend you all know nothing about my life since I moved here. I included the all in there in case more than one person reads this :-p

Wellll, I am living in Piedmont, MO. I moved here 3 and a half weeks ago or so. I live in a 4-bedroom house about 15 minutes from work. The company owns the house. It's a sweet deal.

My job is best explained like this: It's like taste-testing cookies. There are guys here who bake the cookies (mix the grout). They have 6 different mixes (Alpha through Foxtrot). In the cookie world, there are many ingredients, but let's say all we change from mix to mix is the amount of chocolate chips (water). So in this world of cookie making, i'm the taste-tester.

In the grout world, those mixes run from... (brb, testing time)

(ok, so that was Friday when I wrote that. It's wednesday now. Sorry.)... Alpha, the thinnest mix (the largest amount of chocolate chips) to Foxtrot, the thickest mix (the smallest amount of chocolate chips).

They put all this stuff in the ground with these carts. They drill holes, park the carts over the holes, and just pump grout (cookies) into the ground (cookie jar). [my analogy fails here, as cookies eventually come out of the cookie jar and eaten. grout does not, hopefully, come out of the ground.] Anyway, the majority of my work is going back and forth between the 3 plants (bakeries) and testing the grout (cookies). I test it by running it through a funnel (to test time), taking the temperature (to test the temperature :-p), and putting it in a mud balance (to test the weight). Every once in a while, i get to do the special tests (oooohhhh, ahhhhhhh): The VICAT test, where I drop a needle into a styrofoam cup of grout and see how far down it goes; The gel test, where I drop a cylinder into a styrofoam cup of group and see how far down it goes (sometimes adding little weights on it); the pressure filtration test (i think that's what PF stands for...), where I put grout in a metal cup, seal it, and load up the pressure to see how much water comes out; and the bleed test, where i put grout in a graduated cylinder and wait, then see how much water comes out. So yay. Those are the things I do most often.

Other duties: I lead safety meetings on tuesdays. Woohoo. I try to keep track of materials on site (like cement) so when deliveries come, I know which plants need it. When we're doing Low Mobility Grouting (really thick stuff. the normal grout is high mobility, the name says it all), I get to stand by the pump and watch the pressure gauge to confirm when we have refusals. Pretty much the only other thing I do is wait for things to happen (like plants switching mixes), find random things to do to better the plants (like putting more powerful nozzles on our sinks or driving around putting pipe cleaner in the plants), and just driving in our Gator (http://www.deere.com/en_US/ProductCatalog/HO/category/ho_gatorho.html?tm=ho&link=cnav). So anyway, that's my job. I know you've been dying to come visit. Well, gotta go to plant 3. Sorry it took me so long to finish this.

Later!

"All the birds are singing THAT YOU'RE GONNA DIE!!" - NPH

How to... KILL YOUR CHURCH

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:05:45 GMT

Don't come.
If you do come, come late.
When you come, come with a grouch.
At every service ask yourself, "What do I get out of this?"
Never accept office. It is better to stay outside and criticise.
Visit other churches about half of the time to show your pastor that you are not tied down to him. There is nothing like independence.
Let the pastor earn his money; let him do all the work.
Sit pretty well back and never sing. If you have to sing, sing out of tune and behind everybody else.
Never pay in advance, especially for religion. Wait until you get your money's worth, and then wait a bit longer.
Never encourage the preacher; if you like a sermon, keep mum about it. Many a preacher has been ruined by flattery. Don't let his blood be on your head.
It is good to tell your pastor's failings to any strangers that may happen in; they might be a long time finding them out.
Of course, you can't be expected to get new members for the church with such a pastor as he is.
If there happens to be a few zealous workers in the church, make a tremendous protest against the church's being run by a clique. If your church unfortunately happens to be harmonious, call it apathy or indifference or lack of zeal, or anything under the sun except what it is.

These were taken from a church bulletin I got yesterday. I hope you can get the sarcasm in it, and more importantly, the point :)