Below is something a friend of mine found published by St. Mary’s Catholic Church warning parents about their children being “gothic”.  It will amaze you how many of these things EVERY SINGLE TEEN DOES. The things with asterisks next to them are obvious ones that a friend of mine pointed out. There are a bunch more that Misty and I found though. I’m thinking about renting a bus so we can all ride to hell together? Anyone else in?

If Your Child is a Gothic, Reform Through the Lord!

Listed below are some warning signs to indicate if your child may have gone astray from the Lord.

Gothic (or goth) is a very obscure and often dangerous culture that young teenagers are prone to participating in. The gothic culture leads young, susceptible minds into an imagined world of evil, darkness, and violence. Please seek immediate attention through counselling, prayer, and parental guidance to rid your child of Satan’s temptations if five or more of the following are applicable to your child:

1. Frequently wears black clothing.
2. Wears band and/or rock t-shirts.
3. Wears excessive black eye makeup, lipstick or nailpolish.
4. Wears any odd, silver jewelry or symbols. Some of these include: reversed crosses, pentagrams, pentacles, ankhs or various other Satanic worshiping symbols.
5. Shows an interest in piercings or tattoos.
6. Listens to gothic or any other anti-social genres of music. (Marilyn Manson claims to be the anti-Christ, and publicly speaks against the Lord. Please discard any such albums IMMEDIATELY.)
7. Associates with other people that dress, act or speak eccentrically. *
8. Shows a declining interest in wholesome activities, such as: the Bible, prayer, church or sports. *
9. Shows an increasing interest in death, vampires, magic, the occult, witchcraft or anything else that involves Satan.
10. Takes drugs.
11. Drinks alcohol.
12. Is suicidal and/or depressed.
13. Cuts, burns or partakes in any other method of self-mutilation. (This is a Satanic ritual that uses pain to detract from the light of God and His love. Please seek immediate attention for this at your local mental health center.)
14. Complains of boredom. *
15. Sleeps too excessively or too little. *
16. Is excessively awake during the night. *
17. Dislikes sunlight or any other form of light. (This pertains to vampires promoting the idea that His light is of no use.)
18. Demands an unusual amount of privacy. *
19. Spends large amounts of time alone. *
20. Requests time alone and quietness. (This is so that your chid may speak to evil spirits through meditation.) *
21. Insists on spending time with friends while unaccompanied by an adult. *
22. Disregards authority figures; teachers, priests, nuns and elders are but a few examples of this.
23. Misbehaves at school.
24. Misbehaves at home.
25. Eats excessively or too little. *
26. Eats goth-related foods. Count Dracula cereal is an example of this.
27. Drinks blood or expresses an interest in drinking blood. (Vampires believe this is how to attain Satan. This act is very dangerous and should be stopped immediately.)
28. Watches cable television or any other corrupted media sources. (Ask your local church for proper programs that your child may watch.) *
29. Plays videos games that contains violence or role-playing nature. *
30. Uses the internet excessively and frequently makes time for the computer. *
31. Makes Satanic symbols and/or violently shakes head to music.
32. Dances to music in a provocative or sexual manner.
33. Expresses an interest in sex. *
34. Masturbates *
35. Is homosexual and/or bisexual. *
36. Pursues dangerous cult religions. Such include: Satanism, Scientology, Philosophy, Paganism, Wicca, Hinduism and Buddhism. *
37. Wears pins, stickers or anything else that contains these various phrases: “I’m so gothic, I’m dead”, “woe is me”, “I’m a goth”.
38. Claims to be a goth.

If five or more of these apply to your child, please intervene immediately. The gothic culture is dangerous and Satan thrives within it. If any of these problems persist, enlist your child into your local mental health center.

~St. Mary’s Catholic Church

They say when life gives you lemons make lemonade…At the rate life goes for Misty she should open a stand. Misty lost her job, which was a real swift kick in the ass for all of us. We’ve been living our life for the past year on a two person income. Even with what little money she was making at K-Mart we still had that extra money. Her job at L.A./Las Vegas Express was that much sweeter since she had a constant 9-5 schedule, but to lose everything and live off of $300 a week is tough! Luckily it hasn’t been that bad. My parents have been very understanding and have been willing to help out when needed and stopped charing us rent. We’ve been able to get a budget squared away that we can live off of until we find out if she is eligible for unemployment until she finds a new job. In the meantime we do the best we can with what we have. It doesn’t see so bad now, however I know when it comes to bill time we’ll feel the pressure a bit more.

A lot has been going on in my workplace as well, luckily mine seems to be going for the better. It seems all my hard work and dedication to what I do is paying off, and many of the managers have seen that I am the one truly running the show as a leader at the attraction. I put in the extra work and effort to ensure things are getting done, unlike Doug who is getting the forty hour lead work week for doing absolutely nothing. I’m usually not one to toot my own horn, but this time it was what I needed to do to see the hard work I have put in at it seems to be paying off. There is hope for me moving up in the future after all. Time will tell, but so far it seems I am on the right track. I have been getting a lot of compliments from my managers. Work has picked up a lot lately. Apparently Arizona, Oklahoma, and a few other states are on Spring Break right now which has really brought in the crowds. I worked quite a bit of overtime this week and wound up calling in sick today solely to recoup from it. It wasn’t so bad the first two days but when they forced me to stay the third day I was exhausted. Getting up at 6:00 a.m. to be at work by 8:30 and then working until 7:45 p.m. is rough when you follow it up with two more nine hour plus days.

Today Misty and I got up and she made me breakfast burritos, which were super yummy. Unfortunately I ruined them by adding a hot sauce that just didn’t go well with eggs. Bleh! After we played some online tivia games on MSN and then we played The Wizard of Oz trivia game that we recently had unpacked. With Oz trivia came popcorn of the Cinnabun nature. If you have the chance to try the new Cinnabun popcorn try it. At first it is almost a disturbing flavor, but after a while it just becomes addicting. Following our Oz trivia I played Final Fantasy X for a couple of hours. I can’t believe how enthralled with that game I am. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I am tired of starting video games and then never finishing them, only to come back months later and have no clue what I was doing in the game. I think I’ve started every game we have except for Fatal Frame. I’m halfway though Zelda, halfway through Silent Hill 2, it’s sad. The only game I have actually beat is Luigi’s Mansion. Speaking of video games if anyone has any video games or systems that are just taking up room and you want to get rid of them I’ll gladly take them off your hands. I’m trying to build up a decent video game collection to hook up at the apartment when we move.

After Final Fantasy we just hung out for a bit, we then ate dinner, I took a shower and then we head over to Misty’s parents. It was really fun, we rode the ATC all through the back field again tonight and I had a blast. I’ve gotten really good at steering it with all the bumps and grooves in the dirt and have gotten really comfortable riding in third and fourth gear. Misty took Travis on it tonight and drove him around quite a few times. We then watched The Lion King 1 1/2 and The Animal with Rob Schneider. Both were great films and I enjoyed them. Now here I sit, sadly the one night I am in the mood to chat with people there isn’t a soul online. We’re going wedding dress shopping tomorrow, then it’s over to Ricks for his graduation BBQ bash. Should be good times to be had by all.

I haven’t done much posting lately unless it was a comment on someone else’s journal, which is funny since I have had plenty go on these past couple of weeks. Last weekend Misty and I actually took a trip to the mall to do some window shopping. Usually I will shy away from trips like these, mostly due to my disgust for most people and the fact that the people in Riverside County have made me despise people that much more. Usually a trip to the mall means Spencers, Game Stop, and Hot Topic, with not much in between. Needless to say the mall really tried my patience. We went in almost every store that had something of interested, Cinnabun and then to Barnes and Noble. I never really fathomed how awful the mall was, granted usually my mall shopping is done some time during the week. It reminded me so much of the scenes in Dawn of the Dead where the zombies continue wandering aimlessly through the mall with no apparent direction and with no concern for those around them. Next time I should be sure to bring my trusty Boomstick and any other assorted objects that can blow or lob off heads. *Grin* Perhaps the only thing really interesting to mention about the mall was the Abercrombie and Fitch store. Now I’ve seen plenty of the live mannequins before where some poor soul is payed to stand in place for a few hours to draw the attention of those who pass by, but nothing prepared me for what I saw at the entrance of this Abercrombie and Fitch store. It was by far one of the most vain attempts to catch your attention and suck in shoppers that I have ever seen. Rather than have a “live mannequin” in the window they went with a little bit more of a casual approach. They took a young male with a perfectly sculpted body, threw him in some Abercrombie jeans and had him stand there greeting people as they walked in. No shirt, no shoes, but plenty of service for all the young girls walking in. YIKES!

Monday through Friday consisted mostly of work and sleep. Saturday night we went over to Rick’s house for a bit to hang out and throw back a couple of drinks. I finally went to 7-Eleven and picked up a Spark’s to try after hearing so much about it at Misty’s parents house. Her sister and her friends drink them like water, and I was dying to see what was so exciting about this new alcoholic beverage. To my surprise they were actually very good. Imagine drinking any of the citrus flavored energy drinks (i.e. Red Bull, Amp, Hansens Energy) and then adding 6% alcohol by volume to it. Not too shabby. The only problem is I can see why they can drink them like water. It tastes so much like an energy drink and you don’t taste the alcohol. Not to mention the caffeine in it would probably prevent you from ever passing out making it that much easier to keep drinking. Props to the makers of Spark’s, now I have something new to order if I go to clubs. Let’s just hope the clubs hear my cries!

Finally yesterday Misty and I stayed home and did some laundry and worked on wedding plans. We refined the guest list a bit, added in the addresses of those we’re inviting so the information is all right there at our fingertips. And finally to continue in our backwards wedding plans, we booked our honeymoon. Which brought laughter throughout the house considering how backwards we have been since day one. We had wedding ideas before we had a ring. We went and got the ring before I proposed. And now we have the honeymoon booked before we even have her dress….Go figure. We’ll be spending 4 days in Yosemite at The Blackberry Inn. A beautiful Bed & Breakfast in Groveland, California in the Northern Part of Yosemite National Park. With the honeymoon package we get The Bramble Rose Room, a picnic basket for two, complimentary bottle of wine or champagne, a collection of votive candles in the room for ambiance, and a bouquet of flowers. It will be the perfect getaway for our current financial situation. It shouldn’t cost us more than $900 for the total trip including food, gas, and the room, which is perfect since Disney World or New Orleans would have put our trip costs into the thousands. The best part is that we’ll be going in the off season for tourism so it should be fairly quiet and most of all the Only seven months to go and I think the stress is finally settling in a bit. I’ve been a lot more irritable as of late when it comes to finances and the wedding. Thankfully Misty has tried to be supportive as possible while under similar stress. I still have to ask Robbie if he will be one of my groomsmen, sadly every time I see him I totally forget since we get so wrapped up in the moment when all of us are together. We ended last night by watching the last half of the Oscar’s. Wasn’t too surprising that Lord of the Rings swept the show. Sadly movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Fish were left in the dust. Oh well, the trilogy is over which means there will be plenty of chances for new movies to win next year.