Kill the Messenger

Category: Rant
Inspiration: Recent article on the effect of negative music on teens

A recent study by the RAND corporation (click title above for link to article)suggests that teens who listen to libidinous music tend to be more sexist and sexual. This is yet another attempt to blame the media and its messages for individual actions. While I agree that degrading music is a revolting thing that should be avoided by sensible people, I feel that studies like these (and those about other media; especially video games since this is my personal favorite form) place entirely too much blame on the music. We don't need to be teaching our children to ignore this music outright, we need to teach them to confront degrading music and decide for themselves what is wrong with it morally and artistically.

I don't believe that negative media has the power to corrupt a mind that is willing to question it's message and form. As a twenty-something I still have strong memories of my parents methods; outright banning of any music or other media that they felt was negative. I understand that they did this with good intentions and a desire to protect me from the nastiness in the world, but they did me a disservice at the same time. As all teenagers do, I ignored my parents' wishes and sang along with the satanic, sexist, and violent music that was popular at the time. I can't say whether it affected me or not (though I am a pacifist and believer in the equalness of the sexes. oh yeah and I'm not a satanist either), but I do know that I passively engaged this music for a long time. It wasn't until I broadened my listening net that I realized what good music was and why. From then on I listened actively to the music that I encountered, criticizing and then filtering the crap from the art.

Parents are responsible for raising children with critical thinking skills. If we do this then our children can confront any negative media and win. Since we then don't have to ban negative media this has the added benefit of keeping the first amendment in tact. We need to stop trying to kill the messages and the messengers, and start raising more critical audiences.

Carpe that Diem!

Inspiration: A friends dilema
Category: self-help


This is a slightly changed comment to a friends blog. He was discussing his anxiety with becoming an adult.

I think it is a mistake when people feel that their life does not stack up against those of a similar age, background, etc. It is your life; individual and unique. This is not to say that I do not doubt myself sometimes. I do, but I always try and remember that my life path is mine. A path full of dead ends, restarts and machette hacked new routes heading towards an unknown future. I am fortunate that I have at found a "fellow travelor" to accompany me on this journey, but I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. (wait, shit, I am grown up) This is ok, because I realize that my job does not have to be who I am. It is a part, but far from the whole. Also, I don't fear the future. I have succesfully squashed most of the remnants of my religion fueled fear of death. I am a tad bit concerned for my financial well being in my "golden" years, but I save money and hope for the best.

People worry about making the transition into adulthood. Don't. Be your own version of an adult. Subscribe to The Times if you want, talk about your stocks if you want, but don't do it because you think you are supposed to. I think there is nothing duller than doing things merely because it is what an adult would do. For example, I know people who had not gone to church in years, and then suddenly they got married, had children, and decided it was time to grow up and start going every Sunday. I like to call this Canned Faith (or Socially Constructed Faith for you post modernists), but that is a subject for another post. The only adult thing I subscribe to is being responsible. This is because if you are not responsible, you will cause yourself and others harm. Besides this you should be your own man or woman.

Bottom line, don't fret growing up or growing old. Enjoy the ride. As Dan Eldon said, "The journey is the destination."

Science vs Dogma

Inspiration: discussion on Amazon.com about the upcoming book The God Delusion by Richard Dawkings.
Category: Rant and Rave

This is an excerpt of my response to one of the other participants in the discussion. To see the whole thing click the title above. I think this sums up one of my main reasons for basing my world view on science and not faith.

While both science and some religions possess processes to debate theoretical and theological notions, I believe this is essential for scientific theory but not for religious dogma. The very foundation of the scientific method calls for constant experimentation to discover evidence that then can be interpreted in order to draw conclusions about the universe. This comes with the understanding that our ideas about the way of things is incomplete, because we are limited by things like our technology, accumulated knowledge, and the number of scientists. No scientist worth his salt would ever claim that a theory is the end all be all of scientific knowledge.

Science demands the constant reevaluations of our understanding of the way things are, while religion adheres stridently to tradition. This scientific process is open and public. Everyone is invited to participate in this process, whether or not they have been endowed with an official scientific title. If a layperson did a series of repeatable experiments that disproved a prevailing theory, members of the scientific community would consider their findings valid and they would be incorporated into the fold of scientific theory. While I’m no theologian, my understanding is that a layperson has little to no ability to affect the prevailing theology. What the Pope says goes. In fundamentalist communities, questioning the prevailing dogma can get you kicked out or much worse. (This I do have a better understanding of, I've known a number of people who once lived in such a community, changed their thinking, became ostracized, and then moved on under pressure) Scientific debate is inherently open, religious debate is not. I believe progressive thinking is man’s greatest and most noble ability. It is what helps to make man a good and worthwhile creature.

New Blog - Ephemeral Humour

I created a new blog tonight:

Ephemeral Humour

This is my attempt at pure humour. It will be a mix of writings, comic strips, and who knows. As for the comic strips, since I can not draw worth a damn these will be either digital photo comics or purely photoshop drawn comics. But I'm more concerned with the humour than the aesthetics so this should not be a problem (I hope). So check it out and let me know if it's funny.

August Monthly Update

I've decided to do a monthly update at the beginning of each month in case friends, family, or lovers of the mundane want to know what I'm up to. So here is my first go at it.

Love: Still very much in love. Helping (trying to at least) fiancee plan wedding and honeymoon.

Work: Training, training, and more training. I'm writing this from Phoenix, where I have been for the past week and a half. I leave Friday and then come back for another two weeks on August 14th.

Health: Good, I think.

Mental Health: Great. I'm in high spirits 95% of the time.

Reading:

Piers Anthony's Bearing an Hourglass

James Joyce's Ulysses Trying to at least. Word of advice if you read this I recommend having wikipedia.org open in order to understand all the obscure references. Sidenote: I went to www.jamesjoyce.com and it took me to an Irish pub/restaurant's website. And not one called James Joyce's. Funny huh.

www.edge.org I will one day read all of the past articles.

Playing: World of Warcraft (PC), Loco Roco (PSP), Daxter (PSP)

Watching: new Superman movie (I give it a 3.5/5), Alton Brown on food network, adult swim on cartoon network.

Biggest Timesinks: WOW, managing budget/finances (I got Microsoft Money and highly recommend it), blogging.

Beer: New beers I tried this past month were the trippel and 1554 by New Belgium Brewing. I found these in Phoenix and have never seen them on the east coast. They caught my eye because they were around $6 a six pack and claimed to be Belgium style. While the trippel does not compare with a beer like Chimay, it was not bad at all for the price. The 1554, which is supposedly a long lost recipe their brew researchers found in a "ancient crumbling Belgian library book," is a very nice malty dark beer. If you see these I recommend you pick up a few to try. (rating: 4.5/5 based largely on the price factor)

SPAM tastes like crap

Inspiration: the a-hole who posted SPAM in my comments section.
Category: rant

Ten years ago I don't think anyone could have imagined that anything could come along and top telemarketing as the most annoying and intrusive form of advertisement. But with the internet came a competitor which challenged and ultimately dethroned telemarketing. This humble upstart was spam. Not the ham like processed meat product that many Americans have known and loved for years, but its evil, in-bred, pervasive, half-retarded, a-hole of a cousin: email spam. We battled this electronic nemesis for years, losing hours of our lives filtering the 1,000 spam emails from our inbox in order to read the three legitimate emails we had received. Some of the less intelligent of us actually fell for the penis-enlarging, million dollars waiting in Nigeria, naked teenagers waiting to screw, scam emails that came in daily.

But then our ISP stepped forth with a counter strike and introduced spam blocking and we all cheered and some of us cried a little. Now we simply had to add a sender to our spam list and we would nary be bothered by them again. Sure they tried to work around the spam blockers by constantly changing their addresses, but regardless, removing email spam is now a quick and relatively painless process. Of course we may never be able to rid our inboxes of the spam that our own friends and family send to us; bad jokes, religious diatribes, and chain letters. But as far as email is concerned the battle over our inboxes is won.

Unthwarted the spammers pressed on and dove into uncharted advertising territory. They hit us where we least expected them. In our humble chat rooms, message boards, and blogs. It won't be long before they start spamming the chat channels in our favorite online games, dating services, etc. We must not allow these outrages to stand, we must press on to rid our communication channels of mind-numbing, blood pressure rising, carpal tunnel syndrome causing (from all the mouse clicking to delete the spam) SPAM. We must press for legislation to make this illegal. At the very least we must exact financial penalties from the spammers and I'm not totally against the death penalty, because unlike many people on death row a spammer can never be redeemed. His soul is black like the bottom of Lucifer's hoofs. If you know a spammer please slap him, but wear gloves because you don't want his taint infecting you.