Last year when I had only begun blogging I made a post about Halloween. Basically the gist of it is that I think Halloween is a stupid holiday and that entertainment centered around fear is kind of dumb. Now I must admit it was a bit rough; I hardly ever, EVER use the words dumb and stupid. I think that there are usually much better words to convey my thoughts. But as you can see, I had made an exception in that case because I felt so strongly about the subject. I figure this post will be very similar to the one I wrote last year, though perhaps with a more amiable tongue.
When you first think of Halloween, what comes to your head? Trick or treat? Pumpkins? Gore, blood, and grotesque things of all shapes and sizes? No matter how much we might want for Halloween to be simply the time of year where strangers give out free candy, I'm sure you are familiar enough with the history of Halloween to know that it cannot stay restrained to putting on costumes and getting candy. I mean seriously, around this time I dread going into stores because I know that there will be tons of downright disgusting displays absolutely everywhere. I don't know about you, but disembodied body body parts really aren't appealing to me. Neither are skeletons, skulls, ghosts, witches, werewolves, etc. Do we really need a holiday glorifying such things?
I'm not saying that dressing up and going around town to get candy is bad (in fact, I bet it would be more fun as a teenager with friends than as a little kid). I just think that the entire holiday is flawed, and I am sensing no change towards the better. To the contrary, it seems to get drearier and drearier every year. Of course, it is possible that things are staying the same and I and as I get older I only began to see how wrong it is, but I digress. The entire "fear as entertainment thing" must be the first to go. Perhaps if I saw a shift away from the grotesqueness that so fills Halloween these days I might suppose that it is possible that there is a shred of hope for the holiday.
But, even if Halloween is indeed as flawed as I believe it is, would getting rid of it even help at this point? After all, even if Halloween is a partial root for all of this creepy nonsense at this time of year, it is ridiculous to assume that those things would wither away if Halloween was to die. And in the process, the only innocent part of Halloween (the candy) would also be gone. Many children live perfectly good lives without ever going trick or treating, but I must say that I'm sure that many families have pleasant memories of such things. But if it was likely that the atmosphere would change as a result, then I would be all for the removal of the holiday. However, as I have previously stated, it is not. Halloween, though I might like to shovel blame on it, is not the problem. It is what we make of it. Although the title of this post is "Halloween must DIE", the DIE part is mostly because I couldn't resist inserting it into the title. What Halloween really needs is a new direction. I hear that as some people begin to get the foolish impression that they have outgrown getting candy. Such thinking is of course preposterous, but the point is that when people get older I (think) that as a replacement Halloween centers more around costume parties than trick or treating. I of course have no idea if that is the right sort of direction that holiday should go or not, but I'm just mentioning it. Because I can. And no one can stop me. Ever. So to sum up, not everything is bad about Halloween, but some parts are beyond repair. Will I continue to boycott it anyway? Sure. But that's because I'm not a very logical fellow.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
My Life
I was thinking about life again. I don't know about you, but as a teenager when I think about life, I think about the future. What college I will go to. What job I will get. If I can manage to move back to Canada before the U.S. economy completely explodes. All important things to be sure, but I realized that it isn't often that I think about my early childhood. Except for the occasional wave of nostalgia, I never really try to remember it that often. That is why I am taking this opportunity to write a bit of a record of my life before I moved to Iowa. The real reason for this post is actually not for me to remember right now, though that is nice. No, it's for for the future. I remember many aspects of my childhood fairly clearly now, but will that always be the case? After all, many others are beginning to get fuzzy. I would hate to lose those memories.
I was born in Quito, Ecuador, where my parents were missionaries. We left when I was two years old, so sadly I have no memory of the trip at all. We moved to Pinawa, Manitoba, my dad's hometown. We lived there for a couple of years, and because I was still pretty young I remember very little. Then we moved to Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada. Actually, it is more complicated than that. Technically we lived just outside the Osgoode Township, which (somehow) was part of the city of Ottawa, though we were technically a thirty minute drive away. I still don't really understand all of it though; it was kind of confusing.
As a young child I was actually kind of normal. I enjoyed sports, and I was decent in them. I only played competitively once (little league baseball), but I liked playing pick-up sports with friends. It wasn't until I was 8 years old or so that I started playing video games: a shiny Gameboy Advance. I was a very social person back then, playing with friends whenever possible. Now the thing is that it wasn't always possible, so I didn't actually hang out with friends as often as I would have liked. I wasn't involved in many activities except AWANA and Church, so I was at home a lot. My father had constructed what we called "the play structure" in our back yard. It was a two-story playhouse surrounded by a giant sandbox. The first floor consisted of a counter and a bench. To reach the second floor you had to climb a wooden ladder. At the top there was a deck surrounding an inner room which had shingles and a steering wheel, effectively making the entire structure a giant imaginary ship. To exit the play structure there was a fireman's pole, a yellow slide, and a zip line. The zip line was a later addition, and I can tell you right now it was awesome.
Because we lived in a very rural area, there was a large wood behind our house; a place which I enjoyed exploring. Each of the children in my family: me, my older sister, younger brother found a small section of the wood which we could safely claim as "ours". Mine was a small clearing, perhaps a 12x12 (in feet) square . There was a nice large boulder in my section, which I rested my sticks on. Oh, my sticks. I had two primary ones, I believe. A long thin one (I recall it resembling a spear), and one that was nice and sturdy; yet not too bulky. I loved that stick.
We had dial-up internet, and for some reason we were limited to only using 20 hours a month. This time was usually used to quickly find a game we could download and play offline. Of course, there was one game I played on the internet. It's a little thing called Neopets, an online virtual word where you can take care of virtual pets. The silly thing? It's pretty awesome. It has a fully functional economy with a stock market, various trading centers, an ingenious full-fledged battling system, thousands upon thousands of items, hundreds of games (most of the games were short flash ones, but they do have two RPGs that are each a good 25 hours long). When I had a chance I would sometimes play on library computers. I actually didn't play much when I was young, but I did end up playing that game a lot later in jr. high and early highschool, so it does have significance.
We had relatives, though we hardly ever visited them. The family on my Dad's side lived in the general surrounding area of Pinawa, Manitoba, which if you have good memory skills is where I lived for a few years when I was three and four. This was a three-day drive from where I lived, so I think we only ended up visiting them three or four times (though ironically, after moving to Iowa, we are now only a 1.5 days away, so we visit them every Christmas) . The family on my mom's side live in Oregon, and the last time I visited them was when I was two years old.
Although it wasn't for a few years that I picked a favorite hockey team, when I decided to choose the Toronto Maple Leafs (who are still my favorite team, by the way) it was solely because when I first watched them playing on television, they were wearing white. So I figured that they were the good guys. Now this put me in quite a spot with everyone else I knew. You see, the cities Toronto and Ottawa have always had a bit of a rivalry. For while Ottawa is the capital of Canada, Toronto is the capital of Ontario, the province which both reside in. This rivalry eventually found its way to sports. While Ottawa has the Ottawa Senators, Toronto has the Toronto Maple Leafs. Thus it was quite uncommon for people living in Ottawa (kind of) to be supporting Toronto's hockey team.
I've been homeschooled all my life, but we didn't have much in the way of homeschool assistance programs in Canada. For one year there was a thing called CHEER, but I have almost no memory of it because it was soon discontinued. All I remember is that it was at held at our church for some reason, and that I did some sort of French thing. But I was maybe six years old, so not much was really taught. A few years later a few families would get together once a week and I think we played chess, or something? And I vaguely remember there being some sort of science part of it as well.... But I never really had any real classes ; it was mostly just a few people hanging out.
To come to a climax of this story, when I was 10 we moved to Iowa, and from there I became the boring and pessimistic teenager I am today. So I looked through this post again after the rough draft (hehe, I have time for those now that I'm not in a competition), and I noticed that though the rough draft was filled with some pretty cool stuff, while in the completed version there is tons of boring things added in. Oh well. Also, I found that my writing style was really, really repetitive. But I'm too lazy to correct that.
I was born in Quito, Ecuador, where my parents were missionaries. We left when I was two years old, so sadly I have no memory of the trip at all. We moved to Pinawa, Manitoba, my dad's hometown. We lived there for a couple of years, and because I was still pretty young I remember very little. Then we moved to Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada. Actually, it is more complicated than that. Technically we lived just outside the Osgoode Township, which (somehow) was part of the city of Ottawa, though we were technically a thirty minute drive away. I still don't really understand all of it though; it was kind of confusing.
As a young child I was actually kind of normal. I enjoyed sports, and I was decent in them. I only played competitively once (little league baseball), but I liked playing pick-up sports with friends. It wasn't until I was 8 years old or so that I started playing video games: a shiny Gameboy Advance. I was a very social person back then, playing with friends whenever possible. Now the thing is that it wasn't always possible, so I didn't actually hang out with friends as often as I would have liked. I wasn't involved in many activities except AWANA and Church, so I was at home a lot. My father had constructed what we called "the play structure" in our back yard. It was a two-story playhouse surrounded by a giant sandbox. The first floor consisted of a counter and a bench. To reach the second floor you had to climb a wooden ladder. At the top there was a deck surrounding an inner room which had shingles and a steering wheel, effectively making the entire structure a giant imaginary ship. To exit the play structure there was a fireman's pole, a yellow slide, and a zip line. The zip line was a later addition, and I can tell you right now it was awesome.
Because we lived in a very rural area, there was a large wood behind our house; a place which I enjoyed exploring. Each of the children in my family: me, my older sister, younger brother found a small section of the wood which we could safely claim as "ours". Mine was a small clearing, perhaps a 12x12 (in feet) square . There was a nice large boulder in my section, which I rested my sticks on. Oh, my sticks. I had two primary ones, I believe. A long thin one (I recall it resembling a spear), and one that was nice and sturdy; yet not too bulky. I loved that stick.
We had dial-up internet, and for some reason we were limited to only using 20 hours a month. This time was usually used to quickly find a game we could download and play offline. Of course, there was one game I played on the internet. It's a little thing called Neopets, an online virtual word where you can take care of virtual pets. The silly thing? It's pretty awesome. It has a fully functional economy with a stock market, various trading centers, an ingenious full-fledged battling system, thousands upon thousands of items, hundreds of games (most of the games were short flash ones, but they do have two RPGs that are each a good 25 hours long). When I had a chance I would sometimes play on library computers. I actually didn't play much when I was young, but I did end up playing that game a lot later in jr. high and early highschool, so it does have significance.
We had relatives, though we hardly ever visited them. The family on my Dad's side lived in the general surrounding area of Pinawa, Manitoba, which if you have good memory skills is where I lived for a few years when I was three and four. This was a three-day drive from where I lived, so I think we only ended up visiting them three or four times (though ironically, after moving to Iowa, we are now only a 1.5 days away, so we visit them every Christmas) . The family on my mom's side live in Oregon, and the last time I visited them was when I was two years old.
Although it wasn't for a few years that I picked a favorite hockey team, when I decided to choose the Toronto Maple Leafs (who are still my favorite team, by the way) it was solely because when I first watched them playing on television, they were wearing white. So I figured that they were the good guys. Now this put me in quite a spot with everyone else I knew. You see, the cities Toronto and Ottawa have always had a bit of a rivalry. For while Ottawa is the capital of Canada, Toronto is the capital of Ontario, the province which both reside in. This rivalry eventually found its way to sports. While Ottawa has the Ottawa Senators, Toronto has the Toronto Maple Leafs. Thus it was quite uncommon for people living in Ottawa (kind of) to be supporting Toronto's hockey team.
I've been homeschooled all my life, but we didn't have much in the way of homeschool assistance programs in Canada. For one year there was a thing called CHEER, but I have almost no memory of it because it was soon discontinued. All I remember is that it was at held at our church for some reason, and that I did some sort of French thing. But I was maybe six years old, so not much was really taught. A few years later a few families would get together once a week and I think we played chess, or something? And I vaguely remember there being some sort of science part of it as well.... But I never really had any real classes ; it was mostly just a few people hanging out.
To come to a climax of this story, when I was 10 we moved to Iowa, and from there I became the boring and pessimistic teenager I am today. So I looked through this post again after the rough draft (hehe, I have time for those now that I'm not in a competition), and I noticed that though the rough draft was filled with some pretty cool stuff, while in the completed version there is tons of boring things added in. Oh well. Also, I found that my writing style was really, really repetitive. But I'm too lazy to correct that.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
If I Die Young
A song that I have found particularly haunting and thought provoking is "If I Die Young", by The Band Perry.
If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Uh oh, uh oh
Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors, oh and
Life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no
Ain't even grey, but she buries her baby
The sharp knife of a short life, oh well
I've had, just enough time
If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a, bed of roses
Sink me in the river, at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
The sharp knife of a short life well
I've had just enough time
And I'll be wearing white when I come into Your Kingdom
I'm as green as the ring on my little cold finger,
I've never known the loving of a man
But it sure felt nice when he was holdin' my hand
there's a boy here in town says that he'll love me forever
Whoever thought forever could be severed by
The sharp knife of a short life oh Well,
I've had just enough time
So put on your best boys and I'll wear my pearls
what I never did is done
A penny for my thoughts,
Oh no,
I'll sell em' for a dollar
They're worth so much more after I'm a goner
and maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singing
funny when you're dead how people start listenin'
If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a, bed of roses
Sink me in the river, at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Uh oh (uh, oh)
The ballad of a dove (uh, oh)
Go with peace and love
Gather up your tears, keep 'em in your pocket
Save them for a time when you're really gonna need 'em, oh
The sharp knife of a short life, oh well
I've had just enough time
So put on your best boys and I'll wear my pearls
Press "Read more" to read my thoughts on the song (I didn't want to mess up the home page with a super lengthy post)
If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Uh oh, uh oh
Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors, oh and
Life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no
Ain't even grey, but she buries her baby
The sharp knife of a short life, oh well
I've had, just enough time
If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a, bed of roses
Sink me in the river, at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
The sharp knife of a short life well
I've had just enough time
And I'll be wearing white when I come into Your Kingdom
I'm as green as the ring on my little cold finger,
I've never known the loving of a man
But it sure felt nice when he was holdin' my hand
there's a boy here in town says that he'll love me forever
Whoever thought forever could be severed by
The sharp knife of a short life oh Well,
I've had just enough time
So put on your best boys and I'll wear my pearls
what I never did is done
A penny for my thoughts,
Oh no,
I'll sell em' for a dollar
They're worth so much more after I'm a goner
and maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singing
funny when you're dead how people start listenin'
If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a, bed of roses
Sink me in the river, at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Uh oh (uh, oh)
The ballad of a dove (uh, oh)
Go with peace and love
Gather up your tears, keep 'em in your pocket
Save them for a time when you're really gonna need 'em, oh
The sharp knife of a short life, oh well
I've had just enough time
So put on your best boys and I'll wear my pearls
Press "Read more" to read my thoughts on the song (I didn't want to mess up the home page with a super lengthy post)
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