[We] all have those few bad decisions that seem like they were made by someone else. This regrettable decisions are often a product of your “fight or flight” response, which really wasnt designed for much in modern society. Its also something you can easily override.

via If You Feel Compelled to Act, Hesitate First – Lifehacker.

By studying infrared images taken by NASA satellites, Sarah Parcak and her team from the University of Alabama at Birmingham identified the suspected pyramids in Tanis, Egypt. The ancient city, abandoned centuries ago, is famous as the fictional home of the Lost Ark from the Indiana Jones movies. Satellite images also showed other lost structures, like tombstones and houses, buried for thousands of years.

via Possible Pyramids Discovered From Space : NPR.

There’s a big blue box.  It’s bigger on the inside than the outside. It can go anywhere in space and time, sometimes where it is supposed to go.  Something will go wrong, and there’s some bloke called The Doctor who’ll make it all right because he’s awesome.  Now sit down, shut up and watch Blink.

via Neil Gaiman’s Perfect Introduction To Doctor Who For New Viewers – Bleeding Cool.

What a wonderfully crazy port. And what a crazy experience! Cozumel provided us with one of those vacation horror stories. But I am getting ahead of myself.

We had really rough waters the morning that we pulled into Cozumel. And some dreary, rainy weather. that was a bit of a surprise to me. I figured that the Caribbean was always very temperate and sunny, no matter what the season. I hadn’t packed anything that was close to being warm. I did have a long-sleeve shirt for my excursion. I wanted to protect my arms from nicks and scratches in the jungle. Otherwise, though, I had no protection from the elements.

The rough waters didn’t really subsist until we pulled into port. We have a couple of videos that we shot as we were approaching the island, and you can see both the cloudy, rainy sky and get a feel for the choppy sea. Fortunately the sun would break through, and within a few hours we had our sunny, temperate day. Amazing what difference a couple of hours can make.

We were both looking forward to Cozumel. It’s one of those places that everyone who has been there talks about, almost always in good ways. Sure, a lot of those are about drunken memories, but people also mention how beautiful the island is, and how much fun stuff there is to do. Now that I’ve been there, I completely understand. Cozumel is a gorgeous port.

As I said above, though, our first glimpses of Cozumel were less than ideal:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As we were gathering to depart, we got a rather upsetting piece of news from the cruise director. Apparently, a crew member from a different cruise line had been lured away to a remote location, severely beaten and murdered. I think the general idea was to tell us that bad things can happen, but that was a very rare circumstance. And secondary, to remind everyone to be security-conscious. What it mostly ended up doing, though, was scaring the crap out of everyone. Erin even mentions it in this video, taken as we were departing the Eclipse:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of course, part of what contributed to Erin’s nervousness is that we were splitting out on our own for the day. We were each doing separate excursions. Erin really wanted to swim with dolpins, while I really wanted to go on an ATV tour through the jungle. Since I can’t swim and Erin doesn’t like ATVs, it seemed like the perfect time to split up and go our own way. Our goal was to meet up at a local spot in Cozumel (Las Palmeras) after our excursions.

So we said goodbye, and headed off on our ways. My excursion took me off to a secluded spot in the jungle. There was a location set up there, with covered huts, a building housing restrooms, and a parking area for ATVs. There were dozens of ATVs there, more than enough for a large group of people to go at the same time.

As we set out from the loading space, we were given a few instructions. And one of my questions was answered: they would let us ride pretty fast if we wanted to, but first they would order the riders. So they let us ride for about 10 minutes single-file, and then started having people who were holding up the line move back in the line. Eventually, the fastest riders were in the front, and the slowest in the rear.

I ended up third in line, which was just about perfect. I didn’t have the pressure of staying ahead of everyone, but I was far up in line enough that I could really keep the hammer down.

And that we did! we were flying through that jungle, splashing through puddles and riding through muddy, bumpy, rocky streams. Within a few minutes, my lower half was drenched with muddy water. It’d be days before my shoes dried out! I simply cannot tell you how much fun that was. I was cackling madly, and along the way realized I was not the only one. This was an amazing, exciting adventure!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any video while we were actually riding. I didn’t want to risk dropping our flip! As our tour guide put it at the start of the ride: “If you drop your phones or your fancy cameras, make sure that you hold up your four fingers, so you can wave ‘bye-bye’ to it.”

Of course, barreling through the jungle was only part of the excursion. The other was stopping to see some of the Mayan ruins in the area. The combination was what got my heart set on doing the Jungle ATV Tour, actually. I was very happy when we stopped at the first of the two ruins:

Click here to view the embedded video.

As you may have noticed, the tour guide – Jaime – was both informative and funny. He made the tour fantastic, and I learned a lot about the Mayan culture on the island of Cozumel. Jaime gave another information session at the next ruin, and practically had us rolling in tears we were laughing so hard:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I did have one fairly-close call. It was towards the end of the tour. We had to ride through a gated section. As we went past, I glanced over towards the gate and noticed that there was a concrete block there. I thought that is weird, then looked up to see a tree headed straight at me! Damn those trees, always hopping out at me when I am driving distracted! I pulled the ATV into a hard slide and managed to avoid the tree.

Of course, that made me laugh even harder!

When the ride was over, I was a complete and total mess! Jeans drenched, mud up to my knees, mud splatters up to my noggin’. The bandana I’m wearing in the pic was a mess. There was mud on my glasses. Still, though, it was more than worth it. It was fun getting muddy, it was interesting learning a little about the Mayan culture. All in all, it was a brilliant excursion!

I headed back to the ship for a shower and a change. My shoes and socks were drenched, so I had to leave them there. We had bought a really cheap pair of flip-flops in Georgetown. My only other choice was a pair of formal shoes that we rented on the boat. I figured that the flip-flops would be less likely to hurt my feet than the formal shoes, so I put them off then headed back to shore for a while.

I had some time to shop before Erin’s excursion was over, so I checked out the various local shops. That’s where I tracked down some Xtabentún, a delicious liqueur made of rum, honey and anise. It was SOOOOO good! Security actually let me bring it to my stateroom, which I didn’t expect. Giving me access to a rum-based beverage? That’s like putting a picnic basket in front of a bear. You’ve gotta know what the outcome will be.

Anyway, after I packed away all of my goodies from the shopping trip, I decided it was just about time to head to downtown Cozumel and meet up with Erin. I realized that I didn’t know where Las Palmeras was – and for some reason I couldn’t remember the name – so I started to freak out just a tiny bit. That is actually when the day started taking its down-turn, actually. Little did I know that it would head as far downhill as it did.

I had almost no cash with me, just enough to get a taxi. Or so I thought. I had $6 USD, none of the taxi drivers would take me for less than $7. At the time, I figured “no problem, I’ll just hit an ATM machine.” But there were no ATM machines anywhere along the damned pier. Tons and tons of shops – a tourist trap, most definitely. But no ATM machines, and no merchants willing to give cash back on a credit card purchase. I felt trapped!

One might wonder why I didn’t just go back to the ship at this point. The reason was: the flip flops were already killing my feet. And I was already running late. A walk all the way back to the ship would make me super-late, and I didn’t know if I’d be able to walk much more in the flip-flops. Instead, I headed back to the taxi stand.

The merchants in Cozumel were amazingly pushy. They would try and cordon you off into their shops – sometimes actually physically nudging you! I decided to follow their example, ‘cuz I was basically desperate at this point. I went up to where the taxi drivers were milled about and started negotiating. “C’mon, I have $6 American! You’re only missing out on a dollar. You can take me, can’t you? If not, I will find another driver who will. There’s no one waiting for cabs out here. Do you really want to turn down $6?” Finally, the taxi driver said “OKAY! Enough!” and agreed to take me into town.

The first thing I did was go looking for an ATM machine. I was totally screwed at this point if I didn’t have money to get back to the ship. I figured that Erin would probably have enough cash for a cab, but I didn’t want to take that chance. Not with how screwy things were turning out. So I started walking around the square in downtown. I had a couple of men who were following me when I left the 7-Eleven there, so I made a couple of extra stops, trying to be all super-secret spy and lose them in the crowd. [grin]

Oh, one super-side note: you can buy alcoholic beverages at the 7-Eleven there. I don’t mean beer and wine, I’m talking about rum and whiskey. In convenient 12-oz cans, nicely chilled in the beverage aisle! There are some things I really love about Mexico…

Anyway, I got some cash, then figured out my destination was actually Las Palmeras. Which was nice, ‘cuz there were great big billboards giving easy directions to the restaurant. I was there in just a few minutes – that’s one of the only things that went right that afternoon. I walked up, grabbed a table, and ordered a nice, big planters punch (a wicked rum-based cocktail). That was such a yummy drink! I hadn’t had lunch yet, so it was going straight to my head.

After a bit of time had passed, though, I started getting nervous. It was getting fairly late in the afternoon, and Erin still hadn’t shown up. I kept expecting a taxi to pull up and let her off. I finished off my drink and most of the tortilla chips on the table, looked up and noticed that the waiter was losing patience with me. I didn’t want to leave our agreed-on meeting spot, though, so I ordered another planters punch.

Note to self: two planters punches are probably not advisable without a big meal to help absorb some of the alcohol.

Time kept on passing, getting closer and closer to last call to board the ship. I was very frantic by this point. I was trying to call her on the cell phone (we had them turned off most of our trip so we didn’t get any international rates). I was constantly checking the walkie-talkie. And then I decided that I couldn’t just wait any longer, that it was time to try to find her.

I stood up from the table and almost fell on my butt. Those drinks were made strong, strong enough that I was very drunk. That made getting across the street to the taxi stand something of an adventure. It would’ve been more fun if my wife weren’t lost in a foreign country. I actually had cash, so it wasn’t a problem getting back to the port.

As the taxi was getting us to the port, a million thoughts were going through my head. How would I find Erin if she weren’t on the boat? Would I be able to talk the ship’s crew into waiting? If not, where was the closest law enforcement agency I could talk with? How would we meet up with the ship? Where should I start searching?

We were within a couple blocks of the port when I heard the sweetest sound ever. First, a crackle from my walkie-talkie, and then Erin’s voice. I couldn’t hear much through the static, just “…Mikey…” I hit the button on my walkie and said “sweetie! Sweetie is that you?” And then we were babbling. When I got off the taxi we ran into each others arms. We were both shaky, and I am not ashamed to say that some tears were shared. We made our way back towards the pier first with arms around each other, and then holding hands. I walked most of the pier holding my flip-flops and swaying drastically, all the while clinging to my wife, glad that we had not actually lost each other.

Ah, Cozumel!

Our excursion was super-early in the morning. Which maybe wasn’t so bad, because it meant we were able to get off the Eclipse first. The bay at Georgetown is too shallow for a cruise ship to dock at. So the ship tied up at sea and a tender boat came out, picked us up and brought us to the shore.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We had just enough time to head over to the gathering area, then hop onto the bus to head off for the excursion.

Unfortunately, it’s only been a few weeks but I already don’t remember a lot about the bus ride. It obviously wasn’t very interesting, just a ride through the town and over to a dock on the other side of the island. Then we hopped on a little boat and headed back out into the sea, this time heading out to Stingray City.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mind you, when we booked the excursion, the description stated that there was a sandbar where a lot of stingrays swam and there was a beach party to follow. The area that the stingrays were in was supposed to be no more than hip-deep. So I figured that this was going to be a little inlet at the beach where a little bit of water made it to shore, and that’s where the stingrays swam.

Instead, the sandbar turned out to be in the the middle of the friggin’ ocean!!! The boat was zooming along for a good 20 minutes or so away from the island, when suddenly they cut the motor and we started to drift in to this section where a few other touring boats were anchored. We were seriously out in the middle of the bay. There was no land close anywhere.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I figured maybe we were just stopping so the captains of the various ships could say “Hey!” Can you imagine my horror when I realized that they wanted us to get off the boat there?

Yet that is exactly what they wanted. I had to get out of the boat – the water was much deeper than chest-deep, so I ended up starting out the experience scared out of my wits. The captain of our boat helped me down into the water and kinda pushed me over towards the shallow end. Not in a very nice way either… But I reckon he’s used to dealing with wimps.

I didn’t expect the sea to be as powerful as it was. And we were just on a shallow little sandbar! The waves were strong enough that I never got my balance, never felt like I was steady. You can see the fear in my eyes in some of the pictures. And the video. Seriously, I look terrified!

I wasn’t scared enough to not enjoy the experience though. Being in the water with the stingrays was amazing. The rays are much more powerful than I would’ve ever thought was possible. A couple of rays were strong enough to send me stumbling forward. One of the rays actually hopped up on my back like he was giving me a backrub. It was quite an experience!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

From there, we headed off to the beach party part of the excursion. This was at a place called Tiki Beach, a private section of the Seven Mile Beach.

Click here to view the embedded video.

That should’ve been nice, but it really wasn’t. The staff was nice enough, but the facilities are substandard, the sand at the beach was surprisingly rocky.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What I was amazed to find out is that the only way to get an umbrella was to rent one for $10. That would’ve been okay if the sun weren’t blazing down, baking everyone in sight.

I decided it was too hot, so I headed off to the bar. Erin stayed out on the beach for a while. The bar was actually pretty good, the bartender was super-friendly and made some really strong drinks. While I was sitting at the bar, I noticed that there was a woman who was trying to order a drink. She looked a bit timid, like she was trying not to be an inconvenience to anyone. Could be cultural, she had a distinct European accent. Perhaps she was from a section of the continent where politeness trumps everything? Anyway, I told her that she just needed to be a little more direct to catch his attention. It worked for her, too!

Erin told me she was headed to the bar (we used walkie-talkies to keep in contact), so I ordered her a margarita and me another drink (I don’t remember what I was drinking, though I don’t think that was related to the drink itself). When Erin got back to the bar, she saw I was on my second drink and started giving me a hard time. She actually took my notes and wrote: “Cause he is obsessed with alcohol- all he talks about is drinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

How wude!

After our time at Tiki Beach was up (thank god!) we headed back into town, and Erin and I went shopping. Which is, you know, shopping. Normally, I wouldn’t be into it too much. But it was fun to be shopping somewhere exotic together. We found some souvenirs to take home and a couple of things to use on the cruise (including a cheapo pair of flip-flops for me. Those will end up being quite important in my entry on Cozumel). I think that I found some good rum there, too. I think it was there, anyway. Either there or Cozumel. It’s kinda scary how there are little holes or confused memories. Kinda reminds me of my trip to Amsterdam. Though this time, it’s age and bad memory, not being drunk and stoned.

After shopping it was time to head back to the Eclipse. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.

- M

If you love me, you’ll retweet my next tweet. #

True story for you, @torideaux. I set up my writing env. last night. Incense, music, etc. Sat down, heard a *POP* and my computer died. #

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I have to admit that I have come away with a slightly different view of Christianity. It was very enlightening to read through the entire story of Christ starting from Jesus’s birth. It was illuminating to see how the stories and legends grew, how the ministry of Christ changed those around him, and how Christ’s message was changed after his death.

I have more reverence for Christianity now than when I first started this project.That is pretty humbling for me. I always thought I am open-minded when it comes to any religion. I didn’t realize, though, that I was letting my view of Christianity be influenced by others.

There are so many people who use Christianity as an excuse to judge others, to justify discrimination and abuse of others, to try to force their own beliefs on the world in the name of Christ. There are a surprising number of people in the world who are more than willing to twist Christ’s teachings and ministry to suit their own purposes. I allowed my view to be distorted by such people, and that made me very biased against Christianity.

So it has been refreshing to see the core of the religion. To see what Christianity was about when it first started. I still don’t believe in Christ’s divinity, but see him as one of this world’s greatest teachers and philosophers. I think that his gospel spread love and hope and tolerance and understanding throughout the world. The world is all the better because of Jesus.

However, once you get past the gospels and Acts of the Apostles, you see that Christ’s message is corrupted almost immediately after his death. I read Paul’s letters as a complete distortion of Christ’s teachings and message. I truly believe that Paul never stopped being a Pharisee, but instead took the “if you can’t beat them, join them” mindset.

Paul created the story that Jesus saved him and appointed Saul to be one of his chosen few. Paul used this story to work his way into the new Christian church, and to move up to one of the top leadership positions in the church. Once established there, Paul then started steering the religion right back towards his Pharisee roots.

There is a major difference – almost as start as the difference between day and night – between the first half of the New Testament – mostly dealing with Christ’s life, death and resurrection – and the last half. Most of the last half are letters from Paul, stating how people should behave in their daily lives. How they should act, how they should dress, what they should do with their own bodies. Throughout, Paul continually tried to establish his own credibility.

And it worked! Thousands of years later, Paul is enshrined in the New Testament as one of the main voices of Christianity.

On the plus side, Paul gives me a lot to rant about. Good thing, too: aside from rants, there was basically nothing to write about in Paul’s letters.

Be that as it may.

I will leave you with my advice: if you choose to read the New Testament yourself, read the four Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and then skip to Revelation. Skip the entire body of epistles – those written by Paul as well as the minor letters written by Peter, James, et al.

The Gospels allow you to see exactly what Christ taught, mostly in his own words. That is what Jesus wanted people to follow. Read these, and then see how different Christ’s message is from what Christianity turned out to be. I think you’ll be surprised at the difference.

Read Acts of the Apostles because of its entertainment value. Acts is truly one of the best novels I’ve ever read. Peter’s travels, Paul’s arrests and escapes, Paul’s thrilling adventures at sea, Paul’s court room battles against a government that clearly wants him dead, and the finale as Paul faces a future of promise and uncertainty. The story is immaculately plotted and wonderfully crafted. Luke was one hell of an author, and Acts holds up as one of history’s greatest action/adventure stories.

Read Revelation for the pure mind-trip. If you’ve ever wondered what a drug-induced hallucinative trip is like, Revelation will show you. Armies of angels. Locusts with scorpion tails. Seas of blood. Seven-headed dragons. Talking eagles. It’s a hoot, an epic fantasy on the lines of Pink Floyd’s The Wall or Tolkiens fantasy world.

With that, my dear readers, I am calling this project completed. I hope that you have enjoyed this series. I welcome your comments – positive and negative alike. Comment below, or contact me directly.

- Michael Fierro, 12/31/2010

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Tuesday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.

I am going to take a break from now through the end of Christmas weekend. I think I’ve earned a break after 8 months of this. [grin]

Until then, Happy Holidays! Enjoy this time of the year. I truly believe it is the most wonderful time of the year. No matter how much that song is overplayed.

Speaking of songs, here’s one for you to use to help enjoy the holiday.

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Tuesday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.

One might wonder what is there left to do? Evil is vanquished. Doesn’t that mean that good has won, and the story is now over?

About the only complaint I had about the Lord of the Rings movies regarded The Return of the King. The last, oh, half-hour or so was a series of endings. The battles had been fought, Sauron had been defeated, Mordor was no more. But there was scene after scene with someone saying goodbye, or someone heading off across the sea, or of someone claiming their power. All of which could’ve been edited down to a 5-minute montage.

The end of Revelation is pretty much exactly like that. Only without Orlando Bloom.

Chapter 20

An angel from heaven comes down to earth and captures Satan. He throws the serpent into the bottomless pit, then seals and locks the pit. The dragon must stay in that pit for a thousand years, giving him no power over the nations. However, at the end of the thousand years, he will be set free.

After the serpent is captured, John sees thrones set up. Those who sat on the thrones were given authority to judge the living and the dead. However, that is neither here nor there since it isn’t mentioned again.

John then saw the souls of those martyred in the name of Christ. These had continued to worship Christ in the face of mortal peril, they rejected the beast and did not receive the mark. These souls were resurrected and were able to rule with Christ for the thousand years that Satan was imprisoned. This is the First Resurrection.

After the thousand years, Satan was released from prison. He set out and gathered another army of nations to make war against the armies of God. This time, Satan took the assembled armies to the “beloved” city. That was a bad move: God rained down fire on the army, burning them all to a crisp. Satan was once again captured, but this time was thrown into the lake of fire to join the beast and the false prophet. The three will be tortured there forever.

Finally, with his enemies defeated and the earth and heaven destroyed, God took his throne. Death, Hades and the sea had to surrender the dead they held. Everyone who had ever died were raised and brought before the throne. Books were opened for each person, and that person was judged according to their works. Anyone worthy had their name recorded in The Book of Life. Once the judgement was done, those whose name wasn’t in the Book of Life were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death, the eternal death.

Chapter 21

John saw a new, Utopian earth and heaven. God lived among man. There was no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. Nothing unclean would be allowed in, no one who’d do destestable things or would tell lies. There’s only the righteous and God.

Here’s where being a non-believer changes one’s perceptions. For a Christian, the new Heaven and Earth are their ultimate goal. They want to be in the new Holy City living with God/Christ forever. On the other hand, I can’t help but think this would be boring. I could live with not dying, of course. But I wouldn’t want to spend eternity with people who all act and think the same way, worshiping a god who just destroyed all of humanity along with the universe.

If there’s no suffering, who is going to write the great works of literature? If there’s no pain, who is going to create new musical masterpieces? How can there be joy, if there’s never any sorrow? Who can enjoy light if there isn’t dark to differentiate?

Nope, this vision of the afterlife is not palatable to me at all.

But I digress…

Chapter 22

The book closes with John coming back to his present. Both the angel and Jesus say that Christ will be returning “soon.” The angel warns John not to seal up this prophecy, because the time is near for the Lord to return. “Let the one who does what is evil continue to do evil, and let the filthy person continue to be filthy, and the righteous person continue to do what is right, and the holy person continue to be holy.”

John wraps up the book – and the New Testament – by inviting Jesus to return. “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”

Amen!

Up next: Time for goodbyes

New installments of The New Testament In Review will be posted each Tuesday and Thursday. The new posts will always be on my blog, http://biffster.org. The entire series is accessible via http://biffster.org/ntir. If you are one of my Facebook friends, you can get an advance preview on my Facebook page. You can also follow me (@biffster) on Twitter to be alerted to new posts.

Related articles

• All good things must come to an end… NTiR (biffster.org)
• The anti-Christ and the Beast – Revelations 12-15 (NTiR) (biffster.org)
• Angels can be bad-asses! – Revelations 9-11 (NTiR) (biffster.org)

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Me: Wow, that version of O Holy Night is WAY-oversung. Erin: What'd you expect, it's Whitney Houston! Me: Good point. #

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Great games – #linux You pick the price, part goes to charity. Anyone wanna buy this for me for Xmas? http://t.co/jZSauB6 via @youtube #

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