This has been, behindeverygreatmanlies. Thank you...

Why do we do the things that we do? When you're the questioning type like I am, life begins with that dough-eyed phase of uncertainty where you constantly tug on your mother's dress with basic queries about the color of the sky and the exact reason why you have to be in bed by 8pm. You eventually carry this inquisitiveness with you as you're ushered through the gates of the educational system; a system they assure you will more than amply solve all life's mysteries that have been plaguing your mind. For certain, school does assuage the questions for a while, and maybe even come up with an answer or two that make sense to you, but eventually, at some point that is difficult to pin down, the shit just doesn't add up anymore.

Maybe you don't know what I'm talking about. Maybe you're one of the fortunate few for whom life, society and the general order of things has always made sense somehow. Maybe you get frustrated with the stupidity and rigidity of the "system" on occasion, but as a rule life to you is pretty simple. You're born, you grow up, you find a profession or lifestyle, you make a couple of trips to exotic locations, get a tattoo, you fall in love, grow old and move to Fort-Lauredale to live out your golden years far away from the noise of the big city.

If you're like me on the other hand, life and society get more confusing and perplexing with every single year. The way I sometimes chronicle my past is by remembering the year (for instance) that I realized that the American government was almost identical to the Nazi regime, or the day when it dawned on me that not one single living being on this planet knows anything for fucking fact, that we basically live in a fabricated reality governed by widely-accepted theories, and follow the lead of those individuals that sound the most convincing when they advocate the so-called truth (not because they actually know better!). In short, my perception of knowledge and life-experience is akin to keeping a large stamp collection, but replace the stamps with still shots of my epiphanies.

It's not all as grim as it sounds. You often come to positive or humorous realizations about life too. Life tells you one really good joke a day if you pay attention closely. Today's joke is that I can't think of a single good example to support the thesis of this paragraph, in the same way we never remember jokes when we would have he opportunity to share them with friends. Suffice to say that I'm not claiming that becoming aware of shit makes for a life of disappointment or anything that goth-like, I'm just saying that as maddening as my life can be because of the fact that I pretty question everything, I honestly would not want it any other way.

Yeah, society is fucking insane. People often amaze me with the enthusiasm with which they embrace their ignorance, or how they openly and gladly celebrate mediocrity. But like with all things you have to keep your eyes and ears peeled for the handful of folks that will make you feel pure and progressive; the close friends or family members that motivate you and give you hope.
That's as close as to a remedy as I have found for the acute WTF-itis that I have been living with since early childhood.

So this goes out to the boys and girls in my life who bring me joy, laughter, and meaning (you know who you are). Thank you for keeping me alive.

"Humor can be dissected like a frog, but it does die in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." - E.B. White

It's been a long time again, this is becoming one of those real blogs where I don't touch it for weeks and then suddenly update it with some kind of an emergency bitching and moaning session. Well let's see what we can do to avoid that shall we?

I was talking about marriage with some of my work colleagues the other day, and what the institution means to us in this day-and-age. For my part marriage pretty much means diddly freaking squat; it's an sorely antiquated institution that has no conceivable advantage or elevating factor for any long-term relationship. I don't find it romantic, joyful or symbolic of anything genuinely important between two people in love. If anything I find marriage (in the traditional ceremonial sense) somewhat of waste of time and good money, and I find it disconcerting that our society still places such importance on an institution that was basically created to barter off underage women and create financial alliances between families.

Granted, marriage can take many forms these days, and for the most part our laws have cleaned up the statutory-rape factor of traditional marriages. That's of course if you don't count those non-denominational religious sects, third-world arranged marriages (at the tip of an axe and a can of kerosene), and various other cultures that aren't done enslaving/torturing their women. Whoa, how did this post become a feminist manifesto?

Look, I'm not saying that two people cannot take vows, exchange meaningful pledges under the eyes of "God", or that they can't party it up with friends and family. All I'm saying is that it won't make that relationship necessarily any stronger for it. If you don't believe me, look up the divorce statistics in North America sometime. I guess the mistake many people make is that marriage will save their relationships and magically wash away pesky relationship-killers like alcoholism, infidelity,violence, lack of responsibility or halitosis. Those same people will look at a happily-married couple (yes, it does work out sometimes!) and think, "oh my god that could be us if we get married!". I mean I have guy-friends my age that actually are looking for wives more than they are interested in finding someone meaningful to share their lives with.

And to think that homosexuals are tearing down the walls for privilege to marry like straight people. Have we learned nothing?

"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." - Bertrand Russell

Icky Thump

Since the beginning of civilization Man has believed in the concept of Hell or Purgatory; a place of unparalleled suffering, anguish and limitless agony. All the religions or faiths have a name and/or a vision of such a place, the most familiar of these being the classic Christian depiction that involves shrieking naked bodies piled upon each other in a burning apocalypse. I came to the personal conclusion however that Hell is not so much a place but it's the piles of fucking shrieking idiots. I take the bus to work every day...

PS Commuters+90% humidex+no ventilation on buses = fantasies of Kalashnikov-assisted mass murder.

"If people were hate, I'd be China!" - City Slickers