Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Collected Thoughts 7-28-09

  • Apologies for the radio silence. Thursday afternoon I got an unfortunate phone call and had to fly back to Indianapolis that evening to be with my family. I just got back in town late last night. I was too occupied to internet.
  • I won't bore you with details of my life, but my Aunt Christine was a second mother to me for much of my childhood. My grandmother has now had to bury two of her children, which is two more children than a mother should ever have to bury.
  • Man, nobody does funerals like the Catholics. They deploy all five senses to lock you in, counting the communion: the visual iconography, the sounds of the music, the texture of the bread, the taste of the wine, and the smell of the flowers and incense. I don't aim to demean the spiritual value for believers (which is real), but objectively, it's brilliantly executed to keep the flock herded.
  • I can't decide what I want when I die: 1) to have my ashes converted into paint and have a scowling portrait of my visage hung in the hallway of an elementary school, 2) or this. I'm pretty sure I'd prefer no religious ceremony; I think it'd be cool if there was a two-hour "service" where people read passages from books and movies that reminded them of the relationship they had with me. Maybe a couple lectures from some college professors on basic principles I believed in or something. Whenever my flesh-husk ceases to be functional, I'd like my death to be a moment of teaching instead of a moment of grieving.
  • Last funeral thought: just before the funeral I realized just how fragile the vessels for our conscience really are. I was struck with grief when, while breaking into tears, my uncle wiped his eyes with his three-fingered hand; he'd lost the bottom two in a table saw accident some years ago. In the background I could hear my grandfather's respirator and the wheelchair motor of a family friend while next to me laid the body of my deceased aunt, multiple organs missing in an attempt to save her life from cancer. All around me were bodies, living and dead, who'd lost certain functions just by living.

    Soul or no soul, our conscience is kept in a delicate container whose wear-and-tear is inevitable. I understand perfectly well why most people seek comfort in the belief that this life is merely the first part of existence, because the lives we live are inhabited by peril at every turn. You (or just a part of "you") can go at any time. It's madness, really.

On a lighter note!
  • Commenter game! Name bands who have played with no founding members. (This was inspired by the Mae Shi interwebs drama last week) I'll start: Rockapella!
  • I'm hearing a rumor that Little Radio Summer Camp may happen after all, in August.
  • Murs and the guy who runs the Devils Due comic company are forming a "comic-culture authority". That's interesting. With superheroes being the 21st century American cowboy, I suppose it was inevitable. When you're talking about merging superheroes, hip-hop, and videogames you're talking about uniting the three most prominent cultural touchstones of modern American youth. All it's missing is tabloid journalism, an omission that should not be reconsidered anyway.
  • Mark Millian is sniffing around something big. Personally, I believe in 5-10 years that all middle-class and higher peoples will own 1) a smart phone and 2) a computer tablet about the size of a small laptop. The tablet will travel to home and work for all sit-down business, while the smart phone will be our remote control to everything and a mobile link to our home networks. You won't have a desktop PC or Mac, you'll have a tablet / smartphone that will talk (wirelessly, of course) to the storage drives and multi-purpose monitors found in nearly every room.
  • At last, a word that describes me, spiritually: apatheist. It's perfect! It even has a pun in its name!
  • On healthcare reform: Anything that doesn't make the pharmas and insurers scream for mercy is plainly insufficient.

    Any time someone asks you "Do you really want socialized medicine?" the answer is "We already have incognito socialized medicine via emergency rooms. This will lower that cost."

    Any time someone asks you "Do you really want the government to run your healthcare?" the correct answer is "I prefer elected officials who are accountable to me be in charge of my healthcare instead of private citizens with a profit motive whom I've never met". The premise that today healthcare is determined by patient and doctor is a false one.

    Doctors and hospitals are not the problem, they're hamstringed too. Patients are not the problem. The profit motive interfering with a moral imperative is the problem. This needs to be said over and over until the knuckleheads get it.
  • I fully expect the Democrats to pass and Obama to sign an insufficient bill. The industry lobbyists are behind the "blue dog" hold-outs. Millions in contributions, usually through smaller companies owned by the large ones. Sneaky fucks and the knuckleheads who cow to them.

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