Oh Yeah, Death

I don't understand why death is still a subject that needs to be kept covered by multiple wraps and then secured with heavy-duty duct-tape. Isn't it about damn time that we talk just a bit more openly about such an important event of life? But no, every time I even scrape the subject the air condenses and the light becomes an eerie florescent blue. Why is this? We can talk about birth (which, if I may say is MUCH grosser than death), growth (that's for parents and grand-parents to talk about), adult-hood (so boring), mid-life crisis (Television has made fun of this too much), but not death.

I think if Six Feet Under and The Flaming Lips have taught us anything it's that we aren't going to live forever and the sooner we breach the subject the easier it's going to be for us and for loved ones to handle the situation. I'm not saying to keep bringing it up but if it's on someone's mind then it shouldn't be avoided. It's a state of life that everybody is going to go through and it's a state far from simple to deal with. There's insurance and wills and estates and a whole other load of mumbo-jumbo that I'm sure I'm forgetting so when the subject comes up everybody should talk it out. Because it's better to have a grasp on things than to just let things happen as they occur. Let's not forget the emotional and psychological impacts of death. Better to be prepared then to have it all come at you at once. Sure, the subject reminds everybody of their own mortality but we should be comfortable enough with the fact to be able to talk about it without having to gasp and look away from everybody's eyes. Don't let death make you its punk-ass bitch

Race Update

Hello ladies and gentleman and welcome to today's installment of Race Update. I'm Boner Richardson with today's top story...

A recent discovery has been made that the people the general public commonly refer to as "Indians", should not be called Indians! Here's Lauren Duh with further information...

Duh: Thanks Boner. Yes, as previously stated, Indians should not be called "Indians". A recent discovery has led many top scholars to the conclusion that only people from India, or with Indian heritage, should be called Indian. Why, you ask? Well it turns out that the people who have been called "Indian" have no indian background at all. Their ancestors are the original inhabitants of the Americas...natives, if you will. In fact a few people have even taken to calling them "Native Americans". You see, about 600 years ago there was a man by the name Christopher-(what's that last name again?...oh yeah)-Columbus. He was the first European to discover the Americas but he did not realize it. He thought he found India and so he called the inhabitants Indians. All this was discovered by a 5th grader who was reading his Social Studies textbook. He refused an interview but he did comment that, "All this information is stuff everybody knows already." Isn't that cute? Finally, I managed to get a comment from Sandip Pardeep, a local Indian *giggle* man, who said, "Great. Now people don't have to come up to me and point their finger in between their eyebrows and ask me what tribe I’m from." Well, that's all from me. Back to you Boner...

Boner: Wow, what a fascinating story! So the casino people are Native Americans and the 7-11 people are Indians. I don't know, sounds like a load of phooey to me but if you say so.

Indie-Snobs, Ugh!

I'm sick of this whole indie-music-is-better-than

-everything-else mentality that seems to be going around. Just because one's preferred music (artists, songs, etc.) is not usually found on the radio does not give him/her the right to hold that over anybody's head nor does that make him/her any better than anyone else. The point of EVERY piece of music is to be heard as much as possible. Some artists/groups have their limits to how far they are willing to go to get their music heard but, they want more people to listen their music. So the job of every listener is to spread the music and not to belittle someone for their taste in music. Sure, some genres tend to have smarter lyrics than other genres but let's face it. Each genre has its pile of gold and its pile of gunky smelly blemish, kinda like what I somehow kept ending up making after every experiment in chemistry. But then again, who's to judge what is gold and what is blemish? All underground means is that the artist can only be found out through the internet or some indie magazine. Doesn't mean it's better than Nickelback...unfortunately. The influence of mainstream music obviously plays a big role on every musician but quality is to the ear of the listener. Availability also makes a big impact on what people are going to hear and what they can hear. Rattling the fences can only do so much for a band in the short-run, ya know? Anyhoo, be humble all you indie-snobs and stop shooting me those weird looks when I go to cafes.

Teach Your Children Well

Man, what more can I say? These damn overbearing parents are driving me crazy. Let your kid live for their sake; forget about Pete (I thought that was pretty clever.). But seriously, let's just assume parenting means preparing children for adulthood and independence. The more restrictions one puts on their kid the more they are fostering dependence, right? Now I'm not saying to let kids go willy-nilly but there has to be a fine line. How else are kids going to be able to make mistakes and then learn from them? I don't care what anybody says. Only from making mistakes does one truly get experience and learn to become a stronger individual. That is a parent's responsibility to their child and going against that is doing them a major dishonor. Now I can understand how it gets a little tricky when it comes to love and relationships. But love is an important part of every person's life and allowing your kid to express their love makes them a better person and makes the world a better place. It's really sad to see a parent not being able to let their kids go just because they're afraid of their kids loving. And no, I'm not talking about sex. Just letting your kid go out isn't giving them the okay to get their freak on. Love is being with people you care about and being able to express that care. Sex is a potential consequence of love which can lead to some life-changing, ahem, things. That's why you teach your kid about consequences and trust that you've taught them enough to make smart choices when they have to make these kinds of decisions. But like it or not love makes the world go 'round and barring your kid from it is only going to hurt them by making them socially awkward or even harmful to other people. You know you can't keep from the world forever. The world's tricky like that.

So I know the parents this note is targeted towards are probably nowhere near this blog but hopefully this has some positive impact somewhere. People aren't made to be boxed in. They should be free and open. Kids are people too, yeah? So let them out and teach them about life and love, both very important things that they are facing with or without your knowing. Hopefully it's with 'cuz then you're having an honest and open relationship with your kid. I think I'll wrap things up with an Oscar Willde quote. "Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes." I like that.

*Thank you Simpsons for that Wilde quote (chuckle, see what I did there?)
*I realize it's easy to say this when I'm not a parent but when I do become one I am, of course, going to be the greatest parent ever

I've Got Faith in Faith

I'm not a religious man although I do have my moments where I'll pray to a few Hindu Gods that I've been taught to pray to. Those moments are, of course, times of great need or great worry or both. Does that make me a bad person? I don't think so. I've long felt that a person's faith should be whatever they want it to be and I'm starting to come to terms with that more and more.

My problem with religion is that I simply can't believe 100% something that other people came up with. Isn't that what religion is, after all? One guy saying, "Oh hey I saw the craziest thing the other day.", and then other people saying, "What?! No way! I hope I see that too someday." But even more than that, doesn't it seem that religion is a product of people's fear of death? Seems to me that such is the case and that most religions have some sort of system for living life so that your death isn't all that bad. I see this as making religion too human for me to believe in them.



That doesn't mean I don't see the need for religion. It's a big world out there and an even bigger universe. Outside of what NASA knows and whatever's in Area 51, as far as we know we're all alone. That can get pretty lonesome. So if we're the only ones, as far as we know, shouldn't there be a reason that we exist? Although I don't think there has to be an answer to that question I think believing that there is an answer can be very powerful. I've seen some articles about how people with faith tend to recover quicker from medical maladies. So I guess it all comes down to whatever makes you happy. It makes me happy to do a few traditions that my parents taught me when I was a wee lad, like praying to Durga before setting out to drive somewhere. That makes me happy and if believing in Jesus, or respecting a guy with a big white hat, or believing in blue deities makes you happy then I'm okay with that. Because I've got faith in faith