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If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say…

Dec 7th, 2010 by

A few minutes ago, I saw a breaking news bulletin on Yahoo saying that Elizabeth Edwards had died. This came just a day after announcing that doctors had advised her that there was nothing more they could do and that she’d decided to stop treatments.

After reading the short announcement, I scrolled down to read the comments. Though many people posted respectful condolences, many others saw this as an opportunity to spew hateful, grammar- and spelling-challenged remarks. For some people, everything is an opportunity for partisan politics and no exceptions are made, even to respect the grief of those in mourning. To such people, if you do not believe as they do, then you have forfeited any considerations of courtesy and common decency and it’s open season on you and yours.

I would think the old saying, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all”, should apply in such instances for everyone who has any character and integrity at all. If you don’t like Elizabeth Edwards or her husband, fine, but simply don’t comment on such articles at all if you can’t be respectful. A person’s death notice is not the time nor the place for partisan politics.

But the literacy-challenged trolls who haunt the comment sections of Yahoo News and other similar sites do not limit their vitriolic political spewing to articles relating to politics. They post comments trashing their political bugaboos on nearly every article posted, even those that don’t have even the remotest thing to do with politics. Apparently, no one has told these simple-minded fanatics that not everything in this world has to do with politics.

There are several ultra right wing politicians I find completely reprehensible, but I would nevertheless grant them the respect of my silence if they or someone in their family were to die and allow them to grieve in peace. Time and place, people. There are certain niceties that are the hallmark of a civilized society, and respect for the mourning is one of them.

Thoughts?

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Posted in News, opinion, People, Politics, Rants | No Comments »

Sex Set to Music

Nov 2nd, 2010 by

Here’s another video of a favorite song, which I discovered during my teen years. Recorded in the mid-fifties before I was born, by Sam “the Man” Taylor, this song is a perfect example of sex set to music.

Posted in music, Personal | No Comments »

Musical Tastes of a Preschooler

Oct 31st, 2010 by

I’ve liked music since my earliest years, as music of all kinds was ever-present in my home as long as I can remember. And even from my preschool years, I expressed my preferences of music I liked best.

Recently, I’ve been exploring YouTube, as much as my limited dial-up connection will allow. I came upon two of my earliest favorite songs, which turned out to be, believe it or not, Dixieland jazz. Odd preferences for a preschooler, but there you are. Listening to them again 40+ years later, I find I still like the songs as much as I did as a little kid.

Below are videos of the two songs. They are the two songs that made me want to take up the trumpet.

Posted in music, Personal | Comments Off

Working Hard or Working Smart?

Oct 12th, 2010 by

“Working hard” is a virtue that is often praised in our society. It is considered to be a great compliment to refer to someone as a hard worker. And while we are sometimes cautioned against overwork, most people would rather be thought of as workaholics, rather than slackers. For many, being thought of as lazy ranks right down there with being a liar or a thief.

But what exactly do we mean by the phrase “working hard”? Do we mean always doing physically or mentally arduous work every moment of every working day. Does it mean working to the point where we drag ourselves home physically or mentally spent and drop into bed exhausted at the end of every work day? Does it mean we always work as fast as we possibly can? Does it mean searching out more work, even busy work, when there is nothing productive to do, so that every minute is spent “Doing Something”, even if it’s pointless labor?

And this brings me to the point of this entry, the difference between “working hard” and “working smart”. Someone working smart will attend to necessary tasks in a timely fashion in order to meet specific productive goals and at a steady, though not necessarily, frenetic, pace. Work done is always toward a useful goal and is not engaged in merely to “keep busy”. Work is seen as but one component of a balanced life, where rest and leisure are seen as equally important, as someone who gets enough rest and leisure usually tends to work more productively. Work is seen merely as a means to an end, rather than an end of itself, so anything that can make a job easier is seen as an advantage.

Someone who works smart realizes that above all, we are paid for the time we give up for the needs of our employers, apart from the actual labor we do. Time is our most important commodity as , once spent, we can never have a particular block of time back in our lives to do over. In other words, once October 12, 2010 is over, I’ll never have another October 12, 2010 to spend again doing different things.

Thoughts?

Posted in Culture, Life, opinion, Rambling | 1 Comment »

Personality Type and Political Persuasion

Oct 7th, 2010 by

Recently, I came into contact online with someone I’d gone to school with and had not seen since that time. I was surprised to discover that he’s now a strong conservative. Thinking of how he was when we were back in school, he would been one of the last people I’d have thought would have ended up as a conservative, as he was an easy-going, laid-back kind of a guy with an irreverent sense of humor.

I suppose it’s a stereotype, but I don’t associate conservatism with a people who have a strong sense of humor and an easy-going personality, If not apolitical, I would assume such a person would lean toward the liberal side.

Similarly, I went to school with some guys who were rather uptight, humorless, and straight-laced. These are the types that I’d imagine would end up as conservatives in their later years, though I’m sure that these types of people don’t fit the stereotype as my former classmate did not.

How about you? Do you associate certain personality types with various political beliefs?

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Posted in Culture, opinion, Politics | 1 Comment »

Why I Hate “Live” Albums

Oct 4th, 2010 by

Over the years, when buying recorded music: LP albums, and later, CDs, I’ve always avoided buying “Live” albums. That is, music recorded live at a concert. There are several reasons why I hate “Live” albums in general, though there are a few exceptions:

1. The songs are generally rushed, as the musicians desire to cram in as many songs during a concert as possible.

2. The songs are often stripped down as well as being rushed: fewer instruments, simpler arrangements, etc.

3. Live albums are always marred by the sound of morons in the audience who feel they must accompany the musicians by emitting frequent and lengthy high-pitched whistles. I prefer to hear my favorite musicians unaccompanied by the sound of “FWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!” every few seconds, oddly enough.

I can only think of one live album that I like and that is Eric Clapton’s “Just One Night”, recorded at Tokyo’s Budokan Theatre in December, 1979, which happens to be my favorite Clapton album.

Thoughts?

Posted in music, opinion, Rants | 4 Comments »

Boredom and Age

Oct 1st, 2010 by

I often hear teenagers and young adults complaining about being bored. I can remember doing likewise when I was a preteen and young teenager, before I could drive and get out on my own. As a young adult, I found I only experienced boredom whenever I spent extended periods alone which, fortunately, rarely happened. I’ve always liked to read, but there was a limit as to how much time I wanted to spend doing that.

As a kid, I remember my parents rolling their eyes at me when I’d tell them I was bored, telling me they’d find me something to do if I was bored. The “something” was usually something unpleasant that involved doing work. I learned pretty quickly not to say I was bored within my parents hearing!

But as I recall, I kept fairly busy when I was a kid: riding my bike, playing ball, hiking through the woods, hanging out with my friends, listening to music, being in the band, playing board games, building tree houses, and so on. Unlike today’s generation of kids and teens, we spent little time indoors during daylight hours and generally only watched TV at night, with the exception of Saturday morning cartoons.

I grew up in the sixties and seventies, so we also didn’t have video games, cable/satellite TV, DVDs, home computers, internet, cell phones, and so on. We had to be a bit more creative to entertain ourselves than kids do nowadays, but we didn’t have any less fun. Far from it; I think people of my generation had the chance to develop our own creativity to higher degree than in generally so with young people today.

Now that I’m *cough*middle-aged*cough*, I find that I’m almost never bored when I spend time alone now. It used to be that I would avoid spending much time alone, but now I find I enjoy my own company and am usually quite content to spend time in solitude. I can’t say if it’s having to learn to entertain myself as a kid in the absence of most technological entertainments taken for granted today, or if it’s maturity finally kicking in on me. It’s also interesting to note, that other than my computer and internet connection, I don’t partake of much of the current technologies currently available — I don’t have cable or satellite, am not much interested in video games, and I have only a basic cell phone that I use only for talking.

As it stands now, the only time I actually need to seek out others is if I’m horny, which still happens quite frequently, I’m happy to say. Otherwise, I’m quite content to hibernate with my computer for reading and writing, my books, and my stash of DVDs.

Thoughts?

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Posted in Life, opinion, Personal, Rambling | 2 Comments »

It’s the Economy, Stupid

Sep 30th, 2010 by

I didn’t think it possible, but the Republicans have nominated a candidate who is even less qualified to hold public office than Sarah Palin. The fact that many prominent Republicans have distanced themselves from her, refusing to endorse her, is indicative of just how unqualified she is.

First of all, she’s spoken out against masturbation, of all things, saying that it is a “selfish act”. Betraying her obvious lack of understanding about human sexuality, she said, “You’re going to be pleasing each other. And if he already knows what pleases him, and he can please himself, then why am I in the picture?” Trust me, I can’t think of anyone, male or female, who doesn’t want a sex partner simply because they know how to please themselves! Rather, knowing how to please oneself can only be an asset when pleasing a partner. And this is not to mention those who do not have a sexual partner for whatever reason.

She is also against non-marital sex, pornography, and same-sex marriage, which flies in the face of her repeated assertions against what she considers government intrusion.

And besides, it’s about the economy, stupid. In our current recession, candidates cannot afford to waste time on wedge issues which should be a matter of personal privacy in the first place. I want to hear what a candidate is going to do about putting people back to work, not about what they think about what other people do in the privacy of their bedrooms.

Her comments about witchcraft betray that she doesn’t know a thing about the topic. She is quoted as saying, “One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn’t know it. I mean, there’s little blood there and stuff like that,” she said. “We went to a movie and then had a midnight picnic on a satanic altar.”

First of all, Wicca and other related forms of Paganism are completely different from satanism, considering that they don’t even believe in the existence of Satan in the first place. O’Donnell has no earthly clue of what she’s talking about when it comes to witchcraft.

And, again, who cares. It’s about the economy, stupid.

If the people of Delaware elect her to the Senate in November, then they are the truly stupid ones.

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Posted in News, opinion, People, Politics, Social Issues | 3 Comments »

2010 List of Banned Words

Jan 1st, 2010 by

Lake Superior State University has released its annual list of “banished words”; words they consider trite, overused, annoying, or a combination of all three. Following below is the list, with my comments in italics:

SHOVEL-READY

“Apparently, the generally accepted definition of this phrase is to imply that a project has been completely designed and all that is left to do is to implement it…however, when something dies, it, too, is shovel-ready for burial and so I get confused about the meaning. I would suggest that we just say the project is ready to implement. Jerry Redington, Keosauqua, Iowa.

“Stick a shovel in it. It’s done.” Joe Grimm, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

I’d like to take a shovel upside the head of the person who coined this obnoxious phrase.

TRANSPARENT/TRANSPARENCY

“In the lexicon of the political arena, this word is supposed to mean obvious or easily understood. In reality, political transparency is more invisible than obvious!” — Deb Larson, Bellaire, Mich.

Someone throw a blanket over “transparent”.

CZAR

Long used by the media as a metaphor for positions of high authority, including baseball czar Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, appointed by team owners as commissioner-for-life in 1919. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson had an industry czar during World War I. Lesser-known czar roles in government during the last 100 years include: censorship, housing and oil czars in 1941; rubber czar in 1942; patronage czar (1945); clean-up (1952); missile (1954); inflation (1971); e-commerce (1998); bioethics, faith-based and reading czars (2001); bird flu (2004); democracy (2005); abstinence and birth control czars (2006); and weatherization czar (2008).

I thought the Russians took care of “czars” in 1917.

TWEET

And all of its variationstweetaholic, retweet, twitterhea, twitterature, twittersphere.

Jay Brazier of Williamston, Mich. says she supposes that tweeters might be “twits.”

Personally, I’d go for “twats”, myself.

APP

“Must we b sbjct to yt another abrv? Why does the English language have to fit on a two-inch screen? I hate the sound of it. I think I’ll listen to a symph on the rad.” — Edward R. Bolt, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Put “cr” in front of “app” and you get crapp!

SEXTING

Sending sexually explicit pictures and text messages through the cell phone.

“Any dangerous new trend that also happens to have a clever mash-up of words, involves teens, and gets television talk show hosts interested must be banished.” Ishmael Daro, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada.

A “word” spoken by those who aren’t getting the real thing.

FRIEND AS A VERB

Came into popularity through social networking websites. You add someone to your network by “friending” them, or remove them by “unfriending” them.

“‘Befriend’ is much more pleasant to the human ear and a perfectly useful word in the dictionary.” Kevin K., Morris, Okla.

I pretty much hate any noun that is made into a verb and vice versa.

TEACHABLE MOMENT

What might otherwise be known as ‘a lesson.’

“It’s a condescending substitute for ‘opportunity to make a point,’” says Eric Rosenquist of College Station, Tex.

So, portions of time are now capable of being taught, hmm?

IN THESE ECONOMIC TIMES.

“Overused and redundant. Aren’t ALL times ‘these economic times’?” — Barb Stutesman, Three Rivers, Mich.

I think this stuffy phrase has outlived its fifteen minutes of overuse.

STIMULUS

“Everything in the news is about the stimulus packages…it is no longer a grant, it’s stimulus money, stimulus checks, etc. I think it is just being over-used.” Teri Heikkila, Rudyard, Mich.

I’ve got your “stimulus package” right here!

TOXIC ASSETS

“Whatever happened to simply ‘bad stocks,’ ‘debts,’ or ‘loans’?” — Monty Heidenreich, Homewood, Ill.

This list wouldn’t be complete without an oxymoron.

TOO BIG TO FAIL

“Just for the record, nothing’s too big to fail unless the government lets it.” Claire Shefchik, Brooklyn, NY.

Tell this to the owners of the Titanic!.

BROMANCE

“I am sick of combined words the media creates to make them sound catchier. Frenemies? Bromances? Blogorrhea? I’m going to scream!” Kaylynn, Alberta, Canada.

I’ve been lucky to have never heard this one before.

CHILLAXIN’

“Heard everywhere from MTV to ESPN to CNN. A bothersome term that seeks to combine chillin’ with relaxin’ makes me want to be ‘axin’ this word.” Tammy, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

What? Does this mean to put an axe into the refrigerator?

OBAMA-prefix or roots?

The LSSU Word Banishment Committee held out hope that folks would want to Obama-ban Obama-structions, but were surprised that no one Obama-nominated any, such as these compiled by the Oxford Dictionary in 2009: Obamanomics, Obamanation, Obamafication, Obamacare, Obamalicious, Obamaland.We say Obamanough already.

Let’s bomb all the Obama coinages.

My personal contribution to this year’s list would be:

FAIL used as a noun.

For example, a football team loses big in a game and it’s dubbed “an epic fail”. This one made me grind my teeth the first time I heard it. It may be an “epic failure”, but it’s NOT an “epic fail”.

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Posted in Culture, Humor, Language, lists, Rants | 3 Comments »

The Annoyance of Ubiquity

Dec 28th, 2009 by

While reading a message board the other day, I saw a thread about New Year’s resolutions and rolled my eyes. My first thought was that nearly everyone would resolve to “lose weight” in 2010, as that particular resolution is typical and ubiquitous. There’s absolutely no originality about it at all.

Sure enough, I was right. Every person who had posted on the thread put weight loss on their list. I seriously doubt that every person who posts on that large message board is in need of weight loss, hence my rolling of eyes. But no one ever wants to gain weight or just doesn’t care one way (weigh?) or the other how much they weigh. No,everyone resolved to lose weight, even if they were underweight.

And what annoyed me most about this is not so much the desire to lose weight, but rather the ubiquity of this resolution and the total lack of originality in coming up with a list of resolutions, not to mention the ubiquity of New Years’ resolutions themselves.

I got to thinking and I realized that it was ubiquity in general — the ever-present, the predictable, and the typical — that is at the heart of my annoyance. It connotes a lack of original or creative thinking and reeks of a lemming-like ordinariness. Thinking further, I thought of other examples of ubiquity that irritate me.

One example is the fact that nearly every rock band, without question, contains only two types of instruments: guitars and drums. Why do we not see wind instruments on a more regular basis? Why not pianos? There’s nothing wrong with guitars and drums, per se, but the ubiquity of the guitar-and-drums-only bands annoys the crap out of me. I can’t help but think of how much more opportunity for creative music is lost because most rock musicians just stick to the same ol’ thing, instrument wise.

One petty example of ubiquity is that whenever you see a couple sharing a motorcycle, the woman is always the one on the back. What? Is this a freaking law or something? You think they’d want to switch up now and then for a little variety. A funny example of ubiquity is that whenever you are driving behind construction workers in a pickup, they always have a yellow plastic water dispenser with a red lid on top. Never any other colors.

Feel free to list other example of ubiquity in the comment box, particularly the kinds that irritate you..

Posted in Culture, Life, opinion, Rambling, Rants | No Comments »

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