Continue reading »]]> It’s 2012. I am so glad. To put it bluntly, 2011 sucked rocks.

Sure, it could have been worse – things can always get worse – but 2011 was a low point on the line-chart of my life. Winter lasted several weeks longer than usual, our car developed an oil leak, my vegetable garden was a failure and we still did not lose any substantial weight.

But those were the minor disappointments of last year. I also had to deal with the fact that my department supervisor left, leaving our IT department with three people to manage eight stores. And then, we got three new stores so now there’s three people supporting eleven stores. Despite the fact that the amount of work we now have will remain higher even after things settle down, there was no raise and no substantial bonus to compensate for it.

But worst of all was the loss of China. Even if my gardens had been award-worthy, and even if I had gotten a large raise and year-end bonus the death of our beloved pooch would have made it a terrible year.

We’re still feeling her absence – piercingly so – but we have hopes that this next year will start to look up. We’ll be taking the car into the shop to fix the oil leak and heater in the next week or so and we hope to keep things moving positively from here on out. Unfortunately, no one can control the universe and there’s no telling how it’ll all end up. I’m very nervous about the upcoming elections – the level of intelligence of the American public has been disappointing me since 2000. Add to that the fact that people are already freaking out about the 2012 ‘end of the world’ nonsense and you have the makings of a really bad 12 months.

But as for me, personally, I will do my best to keep things moving forward and in a positive direction. Happy New Year to you all and here’s hoping that we all try to do the same.

Continue reading »]]> During my eighth grade year I was the victim of some pretty cruel bullying. None of it was physical – it was all mental and verbal. I was ostracized as part of an ‘experiment’ to see just how far they could go. Turns out, they could go pretty far.

For a period of a several months I had no friends at all. Even those who weren’t in on the experiment avoided me so they wouldn’t be excluded right along with me. That really hurt but I honestly can’t say that I blame them. I don’t know that I wouldn’t have done the same.

My point? I know just how damaging and hurtful simple words can be. I was short, rather plain and always a little chubby so a whispered “fat,” “dwarf” or “ugly” could beat me down into tears.

I’ve been reading in the news about certain areas of the country trying to ban a word so as to protect their children’s delicate ears. I’ve also read about people campaigning against another word because it’s offensive to a certain group of people. The first example is from sheer ignorance, the second from compassion.

I don’t like either campaign, to be honest. Deeming a word offensive gives that word and its wielder power. But more importantly, if we start banning speech even for good reasons it’s going to lead to banning speech for bad reasons. It’s inevitable. It’s already started, actually.

Besides, trying to limit speech will never have any effect. The only thing that will ever lead to harmony among human beings is education and empathy. Until that happens people will just make up new words to replace the banned ones.

Continue reading »]]> Dearly beloved
We are gathered here today
To get through this thing called “life”

Electric word, life
It means forever and that’s a mighty long time
But I’m here to tell you
There’s something else,
The afterworld

A world of never ending happiness
You can always see the sun, day or night

So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills
You know the one, Dr. Everything’ll-Be-Alright
Instead of asking him how much of your time is left
Ask him how much of your mind, baby

Cause in this life
Things are much harder than in the afterworld
In this life,
You’re on your own

-”Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince

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Stephen Hawking’s quote about the existence of an afterlife has been making the rounds of most of the atheist blogs that I read. Haven’t read it yet? Here, I’ll help you out. It’s from his interview with The Guardian:

I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

This is a concept that I actually do struggle with. I don’t believe in God anymore, and that was a slow, tough process. What has been even tougher is accepting that this means there is nothing after my body dies.

My life has not been all that hard. I’ve never faced starvation nor homelessness. I’ve never been physically assaulted. I know that in so many ways I am a very lucky person. But, on the flip side, my life hasn’t been an ongoing party, either. No one’s is.

But during those particularly rough times when I felt helpless and hopeless I could comfort myself by believing that even if I were to die from the anguish, there was always something else – the ‘afterworld.’

While I don’t think I’d like to see the sun day and night (I like the stars, thank you very much, Princey) I hoped that after death would come the ultimate freedom – that my ‘spirit’ would be able to go and do whatever it wanted. I wanted to float around the universe and see all the stars, galaxies, planets, life – everything – that is out there. I hoped to meet people that I had admired during life that had also passed on. I wanted to create my own mansion with lush grounds full of flowers and fruit trees. And my libraries would contain every book ever written, every film ever shot, every piece of music ever heard.

But now, that seems less likely to happen. Once I die, that’s probably it. Done, finito, bye-bye.

I have heard the theory that since energy can’t be destroyed, then the energy that makes up our consciousness will simply transform into something else – that perhaps I will get to float around the universe and take in the sites. But, it’s just a theory and one I won’t be able to prove or disprove until I’m dead.

Either way, it really doesn’t matter. If that theory is correct, yay! Rings of Saturn, here I come! But if it’s not correct and I just go ‘bloob’ and I’m gone, I won’t be here to care anymore. It will be over and the world will go on.

So, in the end, I’m undecided about what I think happens after death. I will just have to not dwell on it and make sure I make the most of the time I have in this life. Fortunately, Prince is wrong on this one. In this life, I’m not alone.