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Son, Can You Play Me A Memory

Like many people my age, I grew up with an appreciation of classic rock. Even today, The Beatles are one of my favorite bands. To me, that music is essential in life because they made music that allowed for many of the musicians that I enjoy the musicians that they are today. Even when I’m writing, I need at least a tune in my head if I can’t listen to my iPod or I sit staring at a screen with nothing coming out. Music is essential to me and everything I enjoy. I always sing to my boys, and I always encourage them to sing even though the baby just claps along. My oldest son has a guitar he enjoys trying to play, and has the same fondness for music as I do. And yes, I borrowed the title from “Piano Man”.

A few months ago, a friend on Facebook said something like “I feel bad for our generation’s kids, because we don’t have any real classic music to pass along to them”. As my husband and I were driving around during errands, my husband posed a question “what real ‘epic’ bands do we have in our generation?” An “epic” band to him is a band that has a staying power, where they stay relevant and touring for many decades. Bands like our parents had, like Aerosmith, The Who, The Rolling Stones, that still perform for decades later and continue to be well-known.

I had to think about this. Our legacy is going to end up being the Beastie Boys or Nirvana. But are they “epic” bands? What bands do we have to share? The only one my husband could think of that would fit would be The Red Hot Chili Peppers. In this age of reality talent shows, what do we really have to add into the pool of “epic” music? Kelly Clarkson made herself a big hit, but how many of you knew that Ruben Studdard made 4 other albums after the American Idol paid for one? At this rate I’m becoming terrified that the legacy of music we’re going to pass onto our children is Poison or Guns ‘n Roses, or god forbid… I can’t even stand to stay it… Metallica.

My money is on Muse, though my husband has a point with The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Our legacy to our kids will be crappy and forgettable music with trillions of dollars of debt, and a government so partisan nothing will ever get done. I agree with my friend, I do feel bad that we can’t pass on any “epic” bands to our next generation. I’d be interested to hear what other people have to say on this topic.

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Friday Has Come

Sometimes I struggle with what to write about at the end of the week. By Friday, I feel like I address whatever needs to be addressed. I don’t get a case of the “Mondays”, I get a case of the “Fridays”. The week drains me, and by Friday I do want to toss aside my writing to take a day off. Most Fridays I have simply run out of things to write about, so I don’t bother. I want to break myself of this habit. I do consider my writing as a job, one that pays poorly, but is that different from many other people out there?

The only thing newsworthy today is the hearings on the IRS. Shocker: a government agency filled with corruption and biased politics. I’ll remember to be surprised. It is a filthy day in the world when the already most hated agency in America because one of the most illegally corrupt ones. Well done, IRS, for showing us the hated can become more hated. It proves to you with hope and bad intentions, anything is possible. Also, I learned there are way too many people sitting there “trying” the IRS officials and they spend too much time talking about random and useless things that don’t really seem to matter or help find out what’s wrong. Maybe cut the committee actually asking the questions in half, and make them actually ask questions would help. Or at least make things less boring and move them along quicker.

My Hubpage is doing well, I think anyways. I don’t know if being featured on there is impressive or not, but it does help my ego and inspire me to work harder in all my writing. The idea of someone moderating my work and decided if it’s worthy or not helps my self-esteem by marking their approval on my writing. I hope this continues and helps me continue on my creative streak. You should check out my Hubpage by using the sidebar link. It’s dedicated solely to parenting, and for those who love my Dylan stories, there’s a nice one about him and his Relay for Life walk.  Also, check out my Kindle Author Page to buy my novella since you’re already looking at the sidebar.

I hope everyone has a nice Friday, and I hope you have a great weekend.

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The Women in the News

Sometimes watching the news can absolutely sicken me. I often say that sometimes watching the news, I can’t help but to imitate my dogs in their confusion. How can people be so stupid, I sometimes say. How can something like that happen? I get a lot of mixed feelings about things I read. I can’t help it, no one can see everything in black and white. Well, most people can’t. Today, I dedicate this post to the women in the news and a female related issue, and as always, I acknowledge I’ll probably offend people or upset people.

I’ll start with the most recent article of news. Angelina Jolie has had a double mastectomy and is regarded as a hero. She is also in the process of removing her ovaries to also prevent getting cancer. Sure, she did a brave thing undergoing surgery to prevent a couple of types of cancer she has a gene mutation for. But how many of the “everywoman” can get tested for a gene to see if they’ll get a cancer? Then how many of them can also undergo an optional surgery for “just in case” measures? Not many. I don’t feel this need to congratulate her, and I’m probably the only one. She’s rich, she can do that sort of thing without worrying about how to pay for things and how much insurance covers. The normal, everyday woman can’t. They get cancer and have to deal with it. To me, those are the brave ones. These things don’t guarantee you’ll never get cancer, just that you’ll never get “those” types of cancer. She could end up with terminal brain cancer, or stomach cancer. I don’t disregard what she did; any type of surgery requires a great deal of strength. But I don’t think I would pin her up as more of a hero than a person who fights for their life because they aren’t fortunate enough to have the same hand dealt to them.

My next point involves Ariel Castro. I was reading an article where the attorney stated that “women unfairly judge my client as a monster”. I don’t think I’m being unfair in thinking a guy who so callously and aggressively abuses women in the manner he has. I don’t think a man who even slightly abuses a woman should even be considered a man nor should be deserving any of my time. A man like this is a monster. Chaining up women, assaulting them and torturing them in every way possible. Abuse so bad that the women miscarried the children that were created by his sexual assaulting them. Yeah, if that’s not a monster I don’t know what is. I don’t see how they can spin this to make it any more ridiculous than Jodi Arias stabbed her boyfriend nearly 30 times and slit his throat and shot him could consider it “self-defense”.  I can’t wait to see the defense on this, because I’m sure it’ll be comedic how creative they’ll need to be to make this man seem like anything less than a cruel beast. It must take a real “man” to beat up a woman, let alone 3 16-year-old girls chained up for 10 years.

My final note involves the idea of men in the military that watch over sexual assault cases. An Army sergeant, whose job is to oversee sexual assault crimes in the Army, is now being accused of…. you guessed it… sex crimes. Prostitution, to be specific. I know when I think of people I’d feel comfort watching over sexual assault cases, I want someone with ties to a prostitution ring in which he may or may not have sexually abused his prostitutes. I wish I was making any of this up, but I’m not. In fact, I don’t even know what I can say about this because it really says everything without me adding to it. Shame.

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No Taxation Without.. Wait, What?

I tried to do my research before writing this post, but I’m not going to lie and say that reading financial laws and tax-exemption laws are interesting enough to make me want to know what I’m talking about. Then I figured, if news organizations can get away with rattling off misinformation under a guise of a mass amount of research, why can’t a blogger who admits not knowing what I’m talking about get away with it. I’m sure I have less of a following than the media does, and I get the bonus of honesty before spouting out opinions that may or may not be backed with actual facts.

The average person has to pay taxes, it’s how we pay our teachers and public service employees. Even celebrities get slammed for not paying taxes, and get hunted down for it. There are 2 certainties in the world: Death and Taxes. Without taxes, services we enjoy go away. I don’t mind paying a bit more in taxes if my children get a better education or I feel safer on the streets due to better trained police officers. I’ll even pay more for better and safer parks for my children to play at. Taxes are why we get these luxuries. I won’t get into a belief about wasted money on people taking advantage of a system meant to help people who are in need, this isn’t about that. This is about people paying taxes like people should pay.

The whole time I’m listening about the IRS breaking laws and discriminating against Conservative groups, I only had one thought in my mind: Why are they even qualified for tax exemption? I didn’t understand what made an organization tax exempt. I knew the Catholic Church was tax exempt, but I also knew the Catholic Church bought a Crystal Cathedral for nearly $60 million. It’s okay though, they saved up from not paying taxes. I wonder if the Catholic Church, which one could argue is probably one of the wealthiest organizations in the world. With food pantries and homeless shelters, I’m sure that $60 million they spent on the cathedral that they didn’t have to pay taxes on could surely actually help the poor. What type of overhead do they really have, I thought priests and nuns took a vow of poverty or humility. Upon further reading, I actually shocked myself by seeing the some professional sports agencies are also tax exempt. I wonder if I could apply for tax exemptions on the grounds that I just don’t want to pay taxes if these organizations don’t have to.

I get it, I’m a silly girl who knows nothing about economics and tax law. Understand, I don’t care what the laws are but I don’t need to know them to understand how screwed up entire system is. I don’t think political groups should be tax exempt. I don’t think a religious organization that is richer than most celebrities should be tax exempt. In fact, I’m not sure of many people I don’t believe should be taxed. If you make money, why shouldn’t you pay your share of taxes on it?

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Then People Go A Little Crazy

I sat around watching the news recently, and wondered “are we getting more sensitive in our age, or are people just crazy?” I can’t say I ever truly figured out that answer. It’s always “____ group was offended because ____” and usually it’s something I can’t help but to tilt my head at the television, with a confused look on my face as if I were mimicking the dogs. What’s the big deal, I thought. So what? I can’t quite figure this out.

Just because I enjoy a steak, that doesn’t mean I enjoy a cow being tortured. It just means steak is delicious. One time my son approached me about why we eat meat, and if it’s cruel or not. I said “Dyl, people have been eating meat to survive for eons. Besides, if God didn’t intend you to eat bacon, why does it taste so good?” He nodded happily. I don’t care PETA exists, they have their purpose. Just because I enjoy a steak, doesn’t mean I want to wear a fur outfit from an animal I wouldn’t eat. Sure, killing an animal for it’s fur and tossing the remains aside is cruel, in my opinion. But it someone wants to wear a fur coat, it’s not my place to lecture them. So when I saw on the news that PETA was outraged by the killing of a spider, I thought I would’ve killed the freaking thing too. I don’t freak out on PETA for killing plants to eat, though plants are definitely living things. Who are they to decide what living thing is fit to be eaten? How do they know plants don’t have the capacity to feel pain or love?

I use this same philosophy on religions. I don’t care if they want a manger in the center of the town at Christmas time, no more than I’d care if they tossed up some other religious articles up at their holiday time. Atheists are allowed to be Atheists as Christians are allowed to be Christians, etc. If you don’t want to celebrate the holiday, then simply don’t celebrate it. I won’t judge you like you judge me. Being of one school of thought doesn’t make you smarter than another, unless you’re just a hateful bigot. Then I’ll ignore you on the grounds that I’m a better human being.

I think I figured it out. It’s not about the cause, it’s about the airtime you get for it. In this age of social networking and everyone being a photographer thanks to smartphones, news spreads. And people are suckers for stories on the news that makes us die a little on the inside because of the sheer stupidity of it. Do I think PETA is really offended by the killing of a spider? Probably, but I won’t tell them how many ants they probably kill walking around everyday. But crying outrage on stupid and asinine topics sells the real agenda you want them to, because you’ll get all the airtime you want.

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Random Musings From BooBoos to Another Plan

The best thing about weekends aren’t just the family time with my boys that I enjoy. It’s getting to sit around and listen to the current events so on Monday, I can run a nice commentary on. From the incredibly joy of headlines, and face-palming at others, Mondays are a day when I can share them with you. I admit, some of my comments today will be silly and childish, but sometimes things bring that out in me.

1) Not the Biebs! I have a soft spot for reading celebrity news. Sometimes you  just need the mindless crap those type of stories come across. Imagine my squealing with glee when I read the headline “Bieber was attacked!” I know, that might make me sound like a horrible person. I decided to stop making Bieber jokes a while back, after a Jimmy Fund girl had been treated very kindly by him. I changed my mind not too long after, deciding that based on actions and the way he presented himself, that a kind act can be forgotten if you’re a spoiled rotten and entitled brat. So seeing that he was attacked delighted me in such a way, until I discovered that he was merely poked or something similarly painless. I don’t want the kid dead, but I certainly think anyone who behaves as he allegedly behaves, could benefit from a little rough up. It builds character.

2) How about a “Plan C”? In the middle of crisis, we sure know how to put things in perspective and get our priorities straight. They have recently made Plan B accessible by 15-year-old girls. People are opposed this because “abortion is wrong” and “15-year-olds shouldn’t have sex anyways”. Let’s ignore the facts that “Plan B isn’t an abortion drug” or “15-year-olds are having sex anyways”. Or that so many people are morally outraged they teach sex-ed in schools or tried to make condoms accessible in the nurse’s office or hand them out to students. How’s teaching abstinence only working out? Oh right, it’s not otherwise 15-year-old girls wouldn’t need Plan B. Maybe we should consider educating our children properly so maybe we can reduce the amounts of “oops”, and there wouldn’t be as much of a need to make this medication accessible to kids.

3) World’s Most Eligible Bachlorette is no more. I tried to watch Honey Boo Boo once and I’m going to be completely honest here: I wanted to bash my head against a wall repeatedly in hopes that it’d dumb me down so much that I would understand what was going on. When I saw on the news that her mother got married, all I could think of was “really, that’s news? A dumb redneck married another dumb redneck, but it’s ok because they exploit their daughter and profit from it so this whole thing is newsworthy?” Sure, I detest her because her family is full of white trash you think really only exists in crappy movies and that’s how they are edited on television. Maybe they have some sort of intelligence, realizing that people enjoy watching stupid people do stupid things.

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The Next Project

My focus has suddenly come back. With the little one coming into an age where he actually enjoys naps I can finally focus back on my writing. I’m finally back into a groove with my blogging here, and I’m starting a nice groove on my Hubs. This is important to me, because it’s encouraging me to find my way back to my goals. I needed to refocus, I needed to set up goals to hit to force me back into my projects. My head has already started writing a new project, and trying to finish the next 3 done.

My next project, which I know I’ve promised already, is essentially done. It’s an anthology of short stories and poetry. Most of the poetry was written in high school, and though there’s something awful about them in quality, there’s a sort of purity in the rawness of it. I feel that poetry is something written from the heart and soul, and to do anything to edit that (no matter how awful) seems to ruin its integrity. That part makes the anthology easy in the editing department. The rest of the story anthology is another story.

It’ll be done, I’ll dedicate the rest of my weekend to it. It’ll be up, and my husband has volunteered to do the cover art this time. I wondered if he offered because he’s awesome, or because I asked him to help me with my blog and Hubs by getting him the camera of his dreams to be my personal freelance photographer. He can add that title to his “read to tell me if it sucks” one that he does for free. Well not for free, it costs me in time making sandwiches and coffees. But for more free than getting an editor or publishing company to do the jobs for me.

With any luck, I can add my second book onto my Kindle e-publishing author page. Which you should check out and maybe even buy my first publishing while you’re there, the link is on the side bar. At $0.99, it’s cheaper than a candy bar or a bag of chips. And if you enjoy an off color sense of humor, you might enjoy it. I’ll keep you guys posted when it gets put up for sale. I also apologize for the boring blog post, but I felt like sharing this for people who are also writers who understand the long process this finishing projects entail. Also, check out my Hub page, which also has a link to the side. Bookmark it, because I post there Tuesdays and Thursdays.