I’ll keep it short and sweet — Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.

Last year in my English class, we got into a debate over whether Lucifer and Satan were the same person. There was pretty much a universal acknowledgment that they were, with the exception of one girl in my class, who claimed to believe otherwise. Because she had the reputation for being a fairly devout Christian and "knowing her facts" when it came to the Bible, we actually started a debate over whether she was right or the rest of us were. I forgot what exactly her belief was, but I think it was something along the lines of Lucifer being an angel that was cast out from heaven, and Satan just being a separate evil entity that was "ruler of hell," so to speak; basically, she thought the two were separate beings (I know, I don't know where she got that from either). She brought up some evidence for her side that was fairly convincing (well, for her, anyway, though not for me :P), but in the end, I think most people still believed the two to be one in the same.

Now, this should have nothing to do with anything, except that I was just doing some Biblical research, and came across a few things that caught my eye and reminded me of this topic. Wanting to reassure myself that I was indeed correct and she was the one that was wrong, I browsed the internet a bit and did a little research to try to prove my point. And, I believe that I have. What follows are a few verses which I believe back up my case pretty solidly, and should have even this girl in my class convinced that Lucifer and Satan are one in the same. Have a look-see:

"How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart:
'I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.'”
-Isaiah 14:12-14

Here, we see the name "Lucifer" appear. There's not much reference to him being the devil - or "Satan," as it were - but pay attention to the first three lines: "How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground..." Okay, got that down? Let's move onto the next verse.

“Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.”
-Revelation 9:1

This whole verse is pretty key. We start with "And I saw a star fallen form heaven to the earth," which is of course referring to Lucifer; Lucifer is the star that is falling from Heaven to earth, which directly ties back to the previous verses in Isaiah 14, specifically the first three that I laid out for you. The second half of the verse, "To him was given the key to the bottomless pit," is important to keep in mind for the next verse, which I'll list out now.

“And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.”
-Revelation 9:11

And therein lies the final piece to my argument. The first part says, "And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit," which we know from the previous verse in Revelation which I highlighted for you is Lucifer. It then goes on to say, "[the angel of the bottomless pit,] whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon." "Abaddon" is the Hebrew name for Satan, meaning "Destruction," and "Apollyon" is the Greek name for Satan, meaning "Destroyer." From this, we are led to believe, therefore, the the king of the bottomless pit is Satan. So, let's put all of this together now, shall we?

Lucifer fell from Heaven. A "star" - Lucifer - fell from Heaven and was given the "key to the bottomless pit." And the "angel of the bottomless pit" is also known by the names "Abaddon" and "Apollyon," which are the Hebrew and Greek names for Satan, respectively. Therefore, based on that path of logic, Lucifer = Satan.

I'm sure no one else cares about this, but for me, this was extremely satisfying, as I now have Biblical proof that Lucifer is, or became, Satan, and that I was indeed right. So lady, you can suck it. Oh, and I mean that in a loving, Christian way, of course. ♥

~o~*~o~

Michael Scott: "What about you?"
I.T. Guy: "Well if you're going to reduce my identity to my religion, then I'm Sikh. But I also like hiphop and NPR. And I'm restoring a 1967 Corvette in my spare time."
Michael Scott: "Okay. So, one Sikh, and..."
-From The Office

You're as dumb as a mule and twice as ugly. If a strange man offers you a ride, I say take it!

Why is it that whenever you just start to get your shit together and start to get to a good place in life, something either devastating or incredibly irritating butts it's head in and causes the shit to hit the fan? It's ridiculously annoying.

I thought I was over all of this high school drama. I thought that with everyone going off to college, that this sort of thing wouldn't really happen anymore, or at least not as much. I thought that with fewer people around, stuff like that wouldn't manifest because there wouldn't really be anyone to help it get started and build. I thought that maybe people would get out into the real world and mature a little bit more, become more level-headed, and, you know, grow a brain. I thought people would start to care more about the important things and less about the stupid little retarded things. And most of all, I thought people would move on and stop living in the past so much and just get on with their lives.

I thought wrong, apparently.

It's funny to think about how these stupid things - and people - follow you around, even after you graduate and get out into the real world and start living more of a normal, everyday life. Over the last year or two, I've encountered some pretty stupid, awful, irritating, and hard (that's what she said) things. And yet, I've overcome them, moved on, and have grown to be (I think) a better person because of it. I've always prided myself on being an individual, being my own person, being who I want to be and not who everyone else wants to be, and I've especially been proud of myself in that respect over the last two years, and, even more specifically, since high school ended. For the first time in my life, I really love who I am, truly and fully. Don't get me wrong - I'd like to lose like 20 pounds and I wish my hair was a bit longer and I'd really love to be doing something a little more interesting work-wise and, of course, I'd kill to be dating Daniel Radcliffe with some Alan Rickman action on the side - but in general, I'm really happy with where I am in life right now. I like me. That's not something that a lot of people can say, and I'm proud that, for at least right now, I can.

And then, of course, something irritating comes back to bite me in the ass and wreck that. Something that just annoys the hell out of me because it brings me back to a time when I was really happy with who and where I was, but ultimately led me to being unhappy, and forced me to completely rethink myself and my values and everything. Again, don't get me wrong, having to go through that made me a much better person, and a lot of that is responsible for me being who I am today, but at the same time...well, at the time, it sucked. Plain and simple. And being reminded of that sucked. Being reminded that I put up with that for a long time sucked. And becoming aware now that I'm much better off without all that and knowing that, not only can it surface again, but that it would come back and think that I'd want to be a part of that after everything that's gone down - that, that right there, sucks. How are you supposed to tell something - someone - that you're over that? Over them? Over everything? Even now, I feel guilty, feel like I should give in, but I know that that's just an older version of myself surfacing, an older part of me that I've tried to distance myself from, because I'm happier without it.

I guess I just don't know how to rationalize this. I know I need to say no, I need to stay away, to keep moving on, keep growing, because I'm much better off without it, and I like myself a lot better without it, but there's still a small part of me - a very small part, mind, but a part nonetheless - that wants to just fold. And that sucks.

...I thought high school was over. Apparently not. Like her immature ways in the sense of drama, I too want to give into my immature ways and just punch her in the face.

~o~*~o~

"I'm friends with everybody in this office. We're all best friends. I love everybody here. But sometimes your best friends start coming into work late and start having dentist appointments that aren't dentist appointments, and that is when it's nice to let them know that you could beat them up."
-Michael Scott (Steve Carrell), The Office