Miley Cyrus:Role model or Disciple of God?!

Over the weekend, Nickelodeon hosted it's 21st annual Kids' Choice Awards.
With no surprise, Miley Cyrus was the big winner taking honours for favorite female singer and television actress.

Now, I'll admit, I'd watched "Hannah Montana" with my kids on a few occasions and yes this girl does indeed have talent.
A decent actress and possessing a great singing voice for someone her age, she had recently been quoted as saying she was "a good role model for kids".
I'd agreed, up until I heard she was quoted during her acceptance speech as thanking "my lord and savior Jesus Christ".

If you want to be a good role model, people should remember you for your actions, and not so much your words.
However, by using this quote in front of millions of impressionable children, it's nothing more than a form of pushing your ideals on others. And isn't that what religion has mostly been doing for thousands of years?

Now, I don't want to get off on a rant here (thank you Dennis Miller), but religion is nothing more than a bunch of stories that people take to heart. Which to a certain extent is ok I suppose.
If you want to believe that a woman got pregnant with out any physical help from a man, fine.
If you want to believe that a man once parted a sea hundreds of miles long and hundreds of feet deep, so be it.
But if you want to tell me that yours is the only religion to follow and if I don't I'll spend the rest of my afterlife in a purgatory of unimaginable horrors, well then we have a problem.

Now, before you go off saying "I bet he's never set FOOT in a Church or even know what 'we're' all about", hold on there Skippy. Let me 'enlighten' ya.

My Father is Lutheran and my Mother, Presbyterian.
Growing up, they never really pushed either religion on me, but let me choose my own path. As a child, when visiting my Grandparents, we'd attend mass.
Later in life, I'd have the occasion I'd go to a Catholic service now and then.
But when I was in High School, I'd experience my first negative experience dealing with "The Church". (and no:it had nothing to do with an alter boy and a priest).

I was seeing this girl (uh oh......here it comes), and she talked me into visiting her church with her.
I forget the denomination, but that doesn't really matter.
A short time passed and her mother found out I was attending "her Church".
Well now, this didn't set well with the "woman from the old country" and during one service she sat behind me and harassed me threatening to "call the police and have me removed".
She did this quietly enough, but after the service ended, the pastor approached me and asked what had transpired.
After telling him, he asked me to join him, and one of the "Elders". (yea.....this is getting good).

So there the three of us sat. In the office of the pastor in a triangle formation.
I don't exactly remember how it came to be, but there I was beginning to have a makeshift "confessional" whereas I was asking forgiveness for creating turmoil in this girls' mothers life!

Ok, say it with me now:WHAT THE HOLY HELL FUCK??!!

The next time I actually set foot in a Church was several years later when my now ex-brother in-law had his son baptized.

This, I believe, was a Catholic Church.

The part that stands out for me most is the way the congregation 'acted'.
It was a large, modern church. You know, the kind you see on television with the televangelist speaking his rederict on "stage" and all the sheep in the crowd lapping it all up.

Anyway, I guess there's part of "Catholic rederict" where the Father/Pastor/Preacher (whatever) recites scripture and the congregation answers with remembered text. In a way, it's kind of neat getting everyone to remember the same dialog time and time again.
The part that KILLS me is how they speak.
NOT with heartfelt emotion.
NOT with any passion in what they are saying.
But in comparison, anyone ever seen Star Trek:The Next Generation?
More specifically, anyone familiar with "The Borg"?

These people respond to the "Leader" in a monotone, unwavering single voice!
There is no distinction of singularity. No individuals.
You'd think if these people believed what they were saying, I mean, really BELIEVED what they were saying, they'd put forth some sort of effort into it!

I guess my point is this: while people of prominence can be considered a role model, take care in listening to what they actually say.

Ok, so that's not really my point.
Maybe I have no point other than another opportunity to rip up on the Catholic Church.

But good golly miss miley:be a role model, but watch what you say!

Death. It's so............final..........

For those of you who don’t know, my family suffered a loss:Squeak has passed away.
What sucks is he was only six months old.

Being a grown man (says so on my drivers license) losing a hamster should be no big deal. But it seems, it’s getting to me more than I realized.

See, it started out that my boys’ cousin’s hamster was about to have babies and she offered each boy a baby.
Their mother said it was up to me being she didn’t want "a rat in her house".
Of course I said ok.
Turned out that only one hamster was to be had by both boys, which was ok with Austin.
So even though he was supposed to be the boys’ pet, Dad ended up caring for Squeak.

It was rather enjoyable tending to him (I hadn’t had a pet since I was a child).
I fed him, cleaned his cage, and ’entertained’ him.
And it was nice coming downstairs in the morning, to be greeting by Squeak waiting for his morning food.
And over a short period of time, I found myself wishing him a "good morning", or telling him "see you at lunch time" and even saying "night Squeak" on a nightly basis.

Tonight was the first night in six months I’d not been able to wish him a good night, and it kinda bummed me out a little.

I’ll miss ya little buddy.

Tattoos and you

I currently have three tattoos and I already know four more that I want to have done in the near future. But if you ask my mom, I've already got three more than I should have.
The funny thing is, I'm going to turn forty this year and my mother still tells me her opinion on stuff like this.

Basically, her outlook is "you don't want to be an old man with tattoos all over your body, do you?".

So, ok, it's a valid point. But, do you think when Ozzy was getting his tattoos, he thought about how he'd look when he got into his 80's? (on a personal note, I think a lot of us are surprised he's lasted this long!).

Or what about Kerry King?



The man has tribal artwork stretching from each side of his head to each arm.
Do you think he's really worried about how he's going to appear to others when he gets older?

Everyone has their own reason for getting inked.
In 19th Century Europe it was fashionable among some sections of the upper class to have discreet tattoos, of family crests and other aristocratic emblems.

I recently read an article that had this quote:
"For some women, the most popular explanation of the motive for getting a tattoo is about "reasserting control over your own body". In a Western world where body image, plastic surgery, anorexia and the depiction of women is a topic of daily debate, tattoos represent a different current of thought."

So it's about personalization. It's about self expression. It's about doing something that you actually want to do. It used to be considered taboo, but now it's become so mainstream, that even Ozzy Osbourne is to have told his daughter, Kelly, 'If you want to be different, don't get a tattoo '.

It seems that our generation has been introduced to something that, having been around for centuries in some form or another, has become more acceptable among mainstream society.

I for one look forward to being put in an "old folks home" surrounded by other old fogies that are all inked up. It might actually bring a new type of "rest home" where there truly is no rest for the wicked.

Join me by rolling your D20 in tribute......

July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008

another loss to the music world

I'll just let the story speak for itself:

TORONTO - Blind rock and jazz musician Jeff Healey has died after a lifelong battle against cancer. He was 41.
ADVERTISEMENT

Healey died Sunday evening in a Toronto hospital, said bandmate Colin Bray, who was in the room with Healey's family when the guitarist died.

The Grammy-nominated Healey rose to stardom as the leader of the Jeff Healey Band, a rock-oriented trio that gained international acclaim and platinum record sales with the 1988 album "See the Light." The album included the hit single "Angel Eyes."

Healey had battled cancer since age 1, when a rare form of retinal cancer known as Retinoblastoma claimed his eyesight.

Due to his blindness, Healey taught himself to play guitar by laying the instrument across his lap.

His unique playing style, combined with his blues-oriented vocals, earned him a reputation as a teenage musical prodigy. He shared stages with George Harrison, B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Bray said he and many others expected the guitarist to rally from this latest illness.

"I don't think any of us thought this was going to happen," Bray said. "We just thought he was going to bounce back as he always does."

Healey had undergone numerous operations in recent years to remove tumors from his lungs and leg.

Bray and fellow bandmate Gary Scriven remembered their frontman as a musician of rare abilities with a generous nature and wicked sense of humor.

Healey's true love was jazz, the genre that dominated his three most recent albums.

His love of jazz led him to host radio shows in Canada where he spun long-forgotten numbers from his personal collection of over 30,000 vinyl records.

His death came weeks before the release of his first rock album in eight years.

"Mess of Blues" is slated for a North American release on April 22.

He is survived by his wife, Christie, and two children.