OK, so, if the world ends tomorrow, let me be numbered among those who decided to blog about it. Why not? If anything is to live on beyond us it's bound to be technology, right? Thousands of years from now a new life form, swinging by Ol' Earth, all burnt up and judged, discovers and extracts my dribble from a server of the "ancient interweb". Not quite as dramatic as discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls or Titanic, but maybe they'll read this and think "What's the Titanic? Sounds more interesting, let's go find THAT!".
I did have a minor episode, more like a passing thought, as a dad-to-be, that the people claiming the end is coming tomorrow, 8pm New Zealand time, are jerks...they suck. You can't seriously be suggesting that now, half-way through my wife's pregnancy, the world will be thrown into chaos and we'll all be dispatched into heaven or hell over the course of 5 months?!
I'm sorry to shock the crap out of ya, but, at least in my humble opinion, the world is and will continue to be on a slippery chaotic slope, ultimately careening into an earth we can't live on anymore. Mankind has very effieceintly created many means of self-destruction and I'm not just talking atomic bombs. From plastic bags, to cars, to the food we eat, we make things, manipulate things and attempt to control things in a hope to "make life easier", all while nipping away at the itegrity of nature, the earth, the climate, the things we really need to simply live. So, I'm convinced the people of earth don't need any help from a mightier power to destroy themselves, or bring an end to the world, we got this one big guy.
The Mississippi River, the most engineered river on the planet, swelling and taking back its flood plains. Nuclear panic in Japan after a massive earth quake send a tsunami into the island nation. Common feature: panic due to something man-made getting screwed by nature. Hurricane Katrina too, biggest problem, the breeching of the levies. I have the utmost sympathy for those who lost loved ones, their homes and their livelihood to these horrible events, don't get me wrong. Tese examples I want to use as proof for my aforementioned theory.
Recently, after hearing a radio interview pertaining to the development of meat in labs, I knew all hope was lost. "Development "of any kind usually means money, probably lots of it, was dumped into the research and materials in an attempt to make it. It means that someone thought that people can't find, or moreover, won't ever accept any other protein source that wasn't a juicy steak or burger. People are preparing for the day when cows and other delicious animals won't be cheap or as accessible a food source as they are today. No mention of promoting other, natural, means of meat or other protein production, just creating yet another Sweet-n-Low, another High Fructose Corn Syrup. How can this not be taken as BAD sign?!
Where to go once we made earth into a wasteland? I guess that's really the question. Will there be a "place" to go and how will we get there? The answer, to me, is right there. There is no "place" to go once we've messed everything up, the place is here. We can let it go or make it better. A beautiful and sustainable place to live or a smogged-over wasteland where we all burn under the UV rays of the sun that once grew our food.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
of baby names and Target
I haven't put it into this blog yet, but in a few more months, if all goes well, I'll be a dad. I know, I know, don't think that way, "if all goes well", but c'mon I'd be a fool to not have a minute piece of doom and gloom and worry and a dash of anxiety during my wife's pregnancy - and no "We're" not pregnant, SHE is, I did my part.
Anyway, now, no matter where or when, just like when you get a new car, I see baby stuff everywhere, creeping into nearly every hour of every day, hitting like an eighteen-wheeler filled with stretchy pants, monkeys, trains, tiny shoes and the smell of plastic and powder. Today, Yahoo has a "Top 10 Baby Names" article, if you wanna call it an "article". I resisted clicking the link, but did it anyway, curious to see if any of the names we're considering we on it. They were not.
Part of me is thinking, "Haha! We beat the system! We went against the grain of American society! Our kid won't look back at the age of 20 and know their name was one of the most common of 2011! (Unlike mine, which was in 1981)
The other part of me is saying, "Who cares?! Snap out of it man! It's a list of names based on someones research, who clearly has a great job to have to get to do that for a living. Plus, it's kind of a marketing ploy for Yahoo."
But, lately I've found needing to enjoy any small victory I can get, so I'm taking this one and running. There's too much junk going on around me that I can't relish a morsel of something good. . . besides good food, which I try to make a place for daily.
"So, what are these 'not on the yahoo top10 list' names?!" you're asking. Not telling, not yet. I will say, that my wife and I made an easy agreement to be traditional with the names we choose, look to our family trees for guidance and meaning and not change the spelling in an attempt to be "different". Nicknames and abbreviations are OK as they age, I mean, why not? Well, OK, I guess "Chunk" would be a pretty crappy nickname.
Anyway, now, no matter where or when, just like when you get a new car, I see baby stuff everywhere, creeping into nearly every hour of every day, hitting like an eighteen-wheeler filled with stretchy pants, monkeys, trains, tiny shoes and the smell of plastic and powder. Today, Yahoo has a "Top 10 Baby Names" article, if you wanna call it an "article". I resisted clicking the link, but did it anyway, curious to see if any of the names we're considering we on it. They were not.
Part of me is thinking, "Haha! We beat the system! We went against the grain of American society! Our kid won't look back at the age of 20 and know their name was one of the most common of 2011! (Unlike mine, which was in 1981)
The other part of me is saying, "Who cares?! Snap out of it man! It's a list of names based on someones research, who clearly has a great job to have to get to do that for a living. Plus, it's kind of a marketing ploy for Yahoo."
But, lately I've found needing to enjoy any small victory I can get, so I'm taking this one and running. There's too much junk going on around me that I can't relish a morsel of something good. . . besides good food, which I try to make a place for daily.
"So, what are these 'not on the yahoo top10 list' names?!" you're asking. Not telling, not yet. I will say, that my wife and I made an easy agreement to be traditional with the names we choose, look to our family trees for guidance and meaning and not change the spelling in an attempt to be "different". Nicknames and abbreviations are OK as they age, I mean, why not? Well, OK, I guess "Chunk" would be a pretty crappy nickname.
bubbliscious
Yet another I wrote several moons ago that I just now got around to posting. In retrospect, I'm glad I waited, considering recent goings on in the world...
I thought it was the coffee, but no, my jittery, fluttering mind and extremities, I'm convinced now, are the result of my surroundings. I fought the urge to list everything that I'm talking about, I mean, is it really going to do anything other then amp me up to the point to bursting? We all know or at least have a sense what's going on "out there" in the world. We're at a point where we know less about our next-door neighbor then we know about a town 50, 500 or a 1000 miles away.
My brother made a great observation on how there are people who wake up, get in their car in the garage, go to work, get out of their car in a garage, leave work, get out of their car in their home garage, go into the house, all without ever touching an inch of earth. A contained "system" to their life, everyday. It take "personal bubble" to the next level.
I thought it was the coffee, but no, my jittery, fluttering mind and extremities, I'm convinced now, are the result of my surroundings. I fought the urge to list everything that I'm talking about, I mean, is it really going to do anything other then amp me up to the point to bursting? We all know or at least have a sense what's going on "out there" in the world. We're at a point where we know less about our next-door neighbor then we know about a town 50, 500 or a 1000 miles away.
My brother made a great observation on how there are people who wake up, get in their car in the garage, go to work, get out of their car in a garage, leave work, get out of their car in their home garage, go into the house, all without ever touching an inch of earth. A contained "system" to their life, everyday. It take "personal bubble" to the next level.
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