I hope it works out. I have been a Premium member for several years, and enjoy the feeling of community on Xanga. Now the questions really become important, though. I have two main questions.

Wondering if Premium memberships will still be good until their currently scheduled expiration date, and what happens to those with lifetime memberships.

I am on facebook at http://facebook.com/lonelywanderer2 and am a member of the facebook groups Xangaville and Xangaforever.
I have loved our time together on Xanga, and if Xanga does indeed shut down, I hope to stay in contact with as many of you as possible. What makes Xanga a community, after is the people we interact with, so maybe we can find that again. Just to be clear, if Xanga continues on, as Xanga 2.0 or in whatever form, I will definitely be a part of it. I would love to keep in touch with you in other forums also, though.

I have a blogger site at lonelywanderer2.blogspot.com

I can also be found on wordpress at lonelywanderer2.wordpress.com

A lot of people talk about having “fuck buddies”, or “friends with benefits”, and sometimes they actually say they just want “sex with no emotions” 

I call that bullshit, or maybe denial.  I could definitely have a female friend that I also sometimes had sex with; I absolutely could.  However, let’s remember the “buddies” and “friends” part of those terms.  If you called a friend and said you really didn’t want to be alone, and asked if you could get together, and they blew you off without caring that you need them, how would you feel about them as a friend?  You’re starting to get an idea what I mean now, right? 

Even during so-called casual sex, or for that matter, while masturbating, most people imagine they are with another human being, a farm animal, or (*shudders*) SOMETHING!!!  Even a rape fantasy, or actual rape, involves the reaction of another living being.

So guys and gals, if you wanna be a player and think “sex without emotions” sounds so great, imagine finding a total stranger and having sex with them.  It can be someone you encounter by accident, a prostitute, or an encounter with someone you meet through an ad.  Make sure they ABSOLUTELY know you have no feelings for them at ALL.  Make them repeat it back to you, or sign a contract maybe. 

Drinks or dinner to set the mood?  No; there is no mood.  Small talk about past life, sexual predilections, where you’re from, et cetera?  Talk afterward about how enjoyable (or unenjoyable)the encounter was?  NOT HAPPENING!!!  No emotions, remember? 

I know if I am going to fool around with, or have sex with, someone, I want it to be a fond memory for me, and them too.  It may not be LOVE.  I’m not saying we’re gonna get married and have babies, but  I’m sure as Hell gonna care about them intensely while we are together.

A woman who was out in a boat with fishing equipment was stopped by the game warden. The warden told her she was under arrest for illegal fishing. When she said she was not illegally fishing, the warden said, “Perhaps not. You can tell that story to the judge; maybe he’ll believe you. But you must admit this. You have all the equipment to do so. Is it such a stretch to believe you tried to dip your line in?”

The women, under threat of arrest, told the warden, “I am going to have to have to report you for raping me.”

The warden protested, “I did not rape you!:”

The woman replied, “Perhaps not. You can tell that story to the judge; maybe he’ll believe you. But you must admit this. You have all the necessary equipment to do so. Is it such a stretch to believe you tried to dip your line in?”

I often think about the joy of bringing a new child into the world, but I realize pregnancy is not thought always thought of as a blessing, and sometimes the decision is made that it would be better if the pregnancy is terminated. Abortion is currently legal in the United States. Although I don’t judge girls or women who decide for whatever reason to have an abortion, I do condemn those who downplay the seriousness of aborting a child, and those “medical professionals” who profit from performing abortions. Many condemn those “radicals” who are pro-life, not pro-choice. Never mind what the expected child’s father wants, either. Who are we to tell a woman what to do with her body?

One argument we often hear is that it is not really a baby, it is “just a mass of tissue”, kind of like cancer is a mass of tissue. So you are not killing a child, you are just dealing with an unwelcome medical condition. After all, being pregnant, especially if you actually have the child, and then let’s say you keep the baby, and raise it, will change your body, and your life, forever. If you offer that child up for adoption, you further have to wonder what is happening to that child, and if it is okay and having a good life, if you have any human feelings at all. It (He or she) may even show up later on, and intrude into the life you have led since giving birth.

When the pregnancy is one that is wanted, and the child is wanted, though, there is no doubt that it is a baby in there. When a woman miscarries, a funeral is sometimes even held for the little one, although not usually.  If a person causes a woman to miscarry, they are often charged with causing the death of the unborn child.

I was born to a woman in prison for writing bad checks. I was adopted by good people who had already adopted my (half-) brother, and later adopted my adoptive sister. They also provided foster care to about a dozen boys over they years, and treated all children as their own. I realize not everyone who is adopted or taken in by foster parents is as lucky as I was. I understand it’s a rough world, and some live in homes that are less than perfect, even downright bad. I would rather grow up in a rough home than never have the chance to live at all, though. So, try to imagine saying to a woman who is pregnant, “You appear to have a mass of tissue in your abdomen. Are you going to have it scraped from inside you so that you can return to a normal life?”

A friend posted that someone he knew stated they love God but not Man’s interpretation of God. This brought about a discussion of whether a person can receive a direct revelation from God, and whether God can reveal his true nature to a human being. I said no human being can ever know the answers to those questions, for the following reasons:

No human being can ever know if a “revelation from God” to a human being is being accurately understood or relayed, because the person who says they received said revelation has to interpret it using his or her human brain.

No human can ever say with 100% certainty that God has revealed His true nature, for that same reason. Even the determination that the event was an interaction with God, or that a given entity is God, is a human interpretation of what happened. Everything we see, hear, feel and think is filtered through the human brain.

I challenge anyone to tell me they understand the true nature of God, or of anything for that matter, without involving human interpretation.

Right now many people are hotly debating the Not Guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. Obviously some believe the verdict was just, some don’t. The thing is, there only two people involved in the confrontation which led to the death of young Trayvon Martin. Nobody else can know beyond a shadow of a doubt what happened, and for sure nobody can see into the hearts and minds of Zimmerman and Martin. There is a very good chance each thought he was the one in danger.

I believe Trayvon Martin attacked George Zimmerman. Zimmerman felt he was in danger of being caused great bodily harm or death and had only seconds to make the decision whether to use deadly force to stop his attacker. I believe Zimmerman will spend the rest of his life questioning his actions on that day.

I have, thankfully, never been in a situation that I thought called for use of deadly force, but I have been in confrontations where someone was threatening to harm me or others. I used the minimum force necessary to control the situation, and never seriously hurt anyone. In those cases where this was in the line of duty, I was told I had handled things correctly. I know some people thought I should have used more force than I did. I still replay those scenes in my head sometimes, wondering if I did the right thing.

Woman: Every time I sneeze, I have an orgasm.

Friend: Oh my God, are you doing anything for it?

Woman: Yeah; I’m sniffing a lot of black pepper!

There is often a heated argument between those who believe in the THEORY of EVOLUTION, the idea that life began as a series of chemical reactions and evolved as mutations which gave an organism an advantage toward survival resulted in new species,  versus the THEORY of INTELLIGENT DESIGN, the idea that a Supreme or Divine Being, or more than one (gods and/or goddesses) created Earth and all of the creatures upon it, much as they exist today.

I do not claim to be an expert, but I have studied and pondered both theories, as well as others, and have come to believe the two ideas are not at all incompatible, they are just different ways of explaining how the universe, and life on Earth, developed.  Many scientists believe there MUST be a supreme being behind life, yet they also believe in evolution.

I ask this:

What could be more miraculous than for a supreme being  to start a sequence of events that would create a planet, Earth, with just the right physical environment to develop so that it could support life, which would then evolve from simple one-celled plants or animals into the wondrous diversity of life we have here on Earth?

I am confident that if we continue to explore, we will find even more wonders, on Earth and on other planets.

I want to thank my family and friends for all their love, support and friendship. I will be okay, and I know that. My post yesterday really was meant to pour out the negative thoughts like you air out a room full of toxic gas or smoke, to let others who are hurting know that they are not alone, and to encourage people might be seriously considering suicide to think about all the reasons to go on living. I have talked to more than one person who was thinking of self-harm such as cutting or overdosing, and have been told a time or two that talking with me kept them from doing so.