Gangnam Style Not My Style

William Hung?

I need help! Fast.  What’s the issue now?  I am glad you asked, thanks for the concern.  Well it seems as though I’ve lost my taste in music! Yes, music!  I love all genre of music.  You name it, I love it.  Now that doesn’t mean I love all songs, I said genre.  Saying this, there’s this song that I am supposed to love. (Yes, supposed to love.   It’s in the script.  Society dictates.) that I really can’t get excited over.  Do you know what song it is?  You guessed it, Gangnam style by Korean singer, Psy.  What the heck is a Gangnam anyways?  I always mispronounce it as ‘Gangman’, which actually makes more sense.  Gangman Style.

When my wife first introduced me to this song, I watched the video thinking at first that it was William Hung, (Remember him?).   “That guy is still around?”  I asked.  I didn’t see it as more than just a joke or a parody  of some sort.  Then I saw him on Ellen and other talk shows.   I thought,  ”Why are they making fun of this poor dude?  Enough already.”  Little did I know that he was for real and that Gangnam style was here to stay, at least for a while, and would become the most watched YouTube video and would also catapult Psy to international fame.  While I sit here blogging about being anti-Gangnam, Gangnam Style is sweeping the globe.  It’s viral.   People are eating this thing up like hot bread.  Mmm…hot bread with butter dripping down your arm... Did I mention that I love bread?  Do they have Gangnam Style bread?

Psy?

Pardon my digression there.   Do you think that maybe if I can understand what Psy is saying, I might be a bit more inclined to overcome my first impression I had of just a weird looking korean guy doing some crazy dance moves?   (Not crazy as in ‘good’).  It might work.   I mean I do like to sing along to my favorite songs.

 Oppan Gangnam Style
Gangnam Style

Na je nun ta sa ro un in gan jo gin yo ja
Ko pi han ja ne yo yu rul a neun pum gyo gi nun yo ja
Ba mi o myon shim ja ngi tu go wo ji nun yo ja
Gu ron ban jon i nun yo ja

(I still don’t like it!)

Now I don’t mean to trash Gangnam Style or Psy himself.  In this mad mad world, if you are looking for some comic relief and to enjoy a song with lyrics you cannot decipher, then this is your cup of tea.  After all, the beat is, the beat is, the beat is technotronic.  (remember that one?).  But it does kinda have a nice-ish beat, doesn’t it?  Hello, even a washed-up MC Hammer is doing the Gangnam!  So if it brings you happiness, then great!  Unfortunately for poor me, it doesn’t.  Well maybe for the first couple seconds when I first saw it.

But what the heck do I know about music anyways eh?  Gangnam Style hovers somewhere outside my realm of musical awareness.   Just not my cup of tea but this blog is JUST MY TAKE.  You can ignore my cry for help.  I am fine being uncool, listening to real music.  Now where is my Elton John cd?

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• Gangnam Style USB Drive are truly viral (techconference.in)
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There’s an app for that but not for that.

Every app but…

I never fully realized how many apps were out there until I was bored one night and explored all the apps I had on my phone.  Granted, they were not that many compared to some of my friends’.  I found that I had a few ‘useful’ and ‘can’t do without’ apps that I had downloaded but never used.  They were extremely useful, must-haves.  I had an app to show me where my friends were located, an app to control my TV, an app to count my calories, an app to let me know where my favorite coffee shop (Tim Hortons) was located.  To me, it seemed like I had an app for everything. Even though, like I said, not as many as some of my friends’.

Isn’t it funny, but not ha-ha funny, how lazy our society has become and how much lazier we are getting?  If we can get an app to help us with our apps, we will buy it.  It’s not enough to have just a TV remote, we need to have our phones turn into remotes as well.

Unfortunately, even though we have so many apps to make our lives better, we have no such app to make us better people.  We are still selfish.  We still show racism and our crimes are increasing.  While we tinker with apps, our lives are messed up.  Too bad there is no app to teach us how to love.  An app to teach us how to be a better parent, son, daughter or just a better human being.  Instead of an app to find our friends, how about one to find ourselves?  We should be checking ourselves before we ‘check in’.   Ironically, we are quick to hit the ‘share’ button but hesitate or refuse to really share as in the true meaning of the word.

They are supposed to make our lives easier and simpler.  Easier = Lazy,  Simpler = Stupider.  So in reality, we are stupider and lazier and incidentally, there is no app for that.

Research before forwarding

“If you forward this blog, Bill Gates would send you a check for $5000.  It’s all true.  It was in the NY Times”.  Have you ever opened up an email like that? Maybe not the exact words but same idea.  You are not alone.  Many of us have not only received but also forwarded emails like this without a moment’s hesitation, hoping to cash in on whatever the email promises.

Being a  suspicious person, (a curse and a blessing sometimes),  I do not take too many things at face value.  If you need to keep a chain email going, I am the wrong person to send it to.  If it promises money or free gifts, I check it out for legitimacy.   I have VIP access to snopes.

If a forward has phone numbers,  you can bet I’ll try calling them.  Once I received one about a missing child and I called the number that was supposed to connect me the someone who was in charge of the case.  Of course it was all a hoax.

Most of these emails can be seen for what they are if we take a minute or two to check out their validity.  Google, snopes and other websites are out there, use them.  If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.

Note:  If you click ‘like’, you will be automatically selected to be Freshly Pressed.  Honestly!  Don’t have a WP account? No problem, you will receive a cheque in the mail.  It’s true! My neighbor’s friend’s sister’s dog got his cheque yesterday!

Update:  I guess some people did not read my blog.  This morning, I went on Facebook and noticed everyone was sharing a photo of a guy with a powerball ticket bearing the winning numbers of the last draw.  It said that if everyone shared the photo, he would give one million dollars to a random person.  I was surprised to see some of my friends who had fallen for this obvious fake and decided to do some research.  It didn’t take me long, to find out that I was right.  Read it here.

Related articles

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• LazyTruth Fact Check Chain Emails, Responds With The Truth (lifehacker.com.au)
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• Two Limitations of the Human Mind (pochp.wordpress.com)
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Freshly Pressed? Well I’ll Be Damned!

It was my 149th post.  Just another take on another day.  And just like the other days and the other takes and the other posts, I checked my email immediately after publishing.  In fact, I kept checking every few minutes.  (Just habit).   I was not counting on receiving an email with the subject ‘Congrats, you’ve been Freshly Pressed!’ so quite naturally and being the suspicious person that I am, I was dubious.

 Freshly Pressed? Yeah right.  Nice one. Now what do these internet hackers want now?  Click on the message and I get a virus, right?  Finally curiosity got the better of me so I opened it, and there it was!  An email notifying me that my post ‘A Real Eulogy‘ was selected to be Freshly Pressed!  I read it again and again then sent a ‘thank you’ response to WP.   Thank goodness this blog was one of my best.   Nothing like getting a blog recognized that you personally think is among your worst.  Read my blog Freshly Press But Not The Best.

I started blogging on WordPress just over a year ago.  It was my umpteenth attempt at blogging but this time I vowed to stick it out and see where it takes me.   Like most bloggers on WP, one of my main goals was to be Freshly Pressed.  Not that I thought I was a great blogger but getting pressed would make me consider myself a genuine blogger.   I thought I was ‘different’ but that’s beside the point.  After a few months of blogging and waiting for that break, I got lost in my blogging world.  I found my rhythm and became more concerned with content than I was with getting Freshly Pressed.  Publishing a blog that I thought would be a good and interesting read became my main priority.

Getting Freshly Pressed was indeed an honor.  I now consider myself a blogger.  (I hope you do too).   FP gave me some legitimacy.  I thank the WordPress admin team for selecting my blog but most of all, I thank my regular readers and followers.  You take the time to check out my blogs and add a comment or two.  There are times when I feel like quitting but realizing that I have readers waiting patiently for my blog, gets me back on the computer.  Thank you!

I have kept all the email notifications and will be going through each of them and promise to view the blog of each and every blogger who liked my post.

If you are a blogger who have never been Freshly Pressed, keep on pressing.  Your time will come.  Stay true to yourself and your blogs, no matter what.  Today, I will bask in my recognition but I know that soon I will be right back to obscurity, toiling in the trenches.

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A Real Eulogy

Last April, I wrote a blog about eulogies at funerals and how it is the accepted norm to make the dead look larger than life.  Read here.   Yesterday, I attended the funeral of a good friend and community stalwart.  His funeral was well attended as he had touched the lives of many.   The Eulogies and speeches were of the same tone.  They painted a picture of a great friend, a champion of the people, a great community man who loved his country and his roots.   Then it was his son’s turn.

To the amazement and maybe disapproval of many, the son did not follow funeral protocol.  He started out by saying his dad was a bad dad.   It’s like mice crashing a cat’s party.  How dare this brash young man hijack this party?  Yes, he’s the son and has authority but he can’t speak of the dead like this!  It’s rude and uncouth and just plain wrong!  He’s sullying the name of his father.  This is definitely not the time nor place for this kind of talk.  I heard debates like this.

It was one of the best and genuine eulogies that I have ever had the pleasure to listen to.  I clung to every word this young man was saying.  He unwrapped a side of his dad that many in the congregation never saw.  It was an unwrapping like no other.  He spoke of barely knowing his dad because of a divorce and growing up thinking that not only would he not shed a tear when he dies but would not attend his funeral.  He shared how he came to terms with what his dad did and was able to forgive him.

This brave young man did not mince his words.  He gave a son’s view of his dad.  How could my dad be ‘The People’s Champion’ and  ’Man of The People’, but couldn’t be my father?  He asked himself this time and time again.   How could he leave us behind and go and help others?  It just didn’t make sense.  The answer did come to him and with it came strength.  It was well written and presented.

His Dad would have been proud of this son who showed that he has inherited his penchant for speaking his mind.  At the end of the service, I overheard various debates on the suitability of his eulogy.

To the young man, you could not have chosen a better time.  You did not sully the reputation that your father had, you enhanced it.  You explained the situation that tossed your father into a path that he was not ready to take and how he made the unpopular choice that he made, thus you made his legacy that much more meaningful.  A bad man didn’t die.  A man who turned his own weaknesses and failures into strength did.  A man who didn’t have the tools to be a Dad, had the tools to be comrade, a friend, a voice, a mover and a shaker.

The understanding and strength you showed to forgive your dad was the beginning of a maturity that many of us lack.  Your eulogy was not controversial, it was revealing.  It was not unsuitable, it was necessary.  It was relevant.  All can see that your dad’s memory and legacy is alive and well within you.  My condolences to you and your family and may your dad’s soul finally find rest.

Please read:

• Eulogy to a friend and countryman.
• Speaking ill of the dead
• What would your final words say?

Opening your gifts

 

I was thinking, like I always do, about what I would have liked to be doing instead of doing what I’m doing.  Where would I be and so on and so on.  This thought led to another and another and soon enough, I was thinking about the gifts that we are all born with and how some of these are extraordinary and unique yet they sit in our mental cupboards, unopened.  We are scared to open them as doing so could drastically change our lives the way we knew it.  We are influenced by our peers not to open them or we are too shy.

 

On Christmas morning, parents sit with expectant looks on their faces as they watch their little ones rip at the gift wrappings on their presents.  Cameras are cocked and ready to record the looks of excitement and glee on the little ones faces as they see what is inside.  Upon opening a much-wanted present, all unwrapping comes to an end as the child is now occupied with that one gift.  “Come over here and open the other presents you have under the tree”.  Each present is special and without opening each one, the child would never know if there’s one that trumps his now-prized present.

 

This can be the used to describe our lives.  We choose our paths based on financial reasons, popularity, peer pressure or other.  We settle on that one gift that make us at least comfortable.  We have not explored our other gifts because we feel comfortable ‘settling’ with what we have.  Married with kids and a basically comfortable life, we fear rolling the dice could upset our lives and so our gift, our unique talent is left unopened and unexplored.

What is your talent that sits unopened?  Life is short, rip it open and see where it takes you.

 

Related articles

• What’s your gift? (thundergodblog.wordpress.com)

 

Sexual Assault Case Tossed Over Technicality

In yet another gross and blatant miscarriage of justice by our Justice system, a case involving sexual abuse of a minor was tossed out based on a flimsy technicality.  Tossed out like dirty dish water.  If there ever was a right time to yell B**L  S**t! this is it. Totally BS if you ask me.

Let’s talk.  In a nutshell, the victim who was just seven at the time of the alleged abuse, which included fondling and oral sex, is now 17.  She went to the cops with a statement of the incidents when she was 14 but a request by the police to speak to the accused, her mom’s ex boyfriend, was refused.  A warrant for his arrest was served but never executed until 18 months later and that my readers, is where the technicality lies.

The presiding Judge tossed the case out because it took too long.  My question is, would he have felt the same way if the victim was his own daughter?  So now we have a child molester and pedophile out there somewhere probably preying on some other kid as we speak, and a girl who was betrayed by the very system that was put in place to protect her and other kids like her,  from this nightmare.  Unfortunately, because justice was never served, her nightmare will continue.   For her, it would not just disappear because time elapsed.  The judge felt that the accused rights were violated.  Well, seems like this judge has his sense of responsibility all confused.  How about the rights of the young victim? Wanna talk about violation?  The perp violated her and you, your honor, violated her further.

A sex crime against a 7-year old is disgusting and disturbing to say the least.  It is reprehensible.  No technicality should exist that would enable the perpetrator to get off the hook once he’s proven guilty.   Granted, this guy was not proven guilty.  The court never got the chance to prove his guilt or innocence.

Injustice and lack of compassion is what this is all about.  I hope that the victim could find strength to make a full recovery from her abuse and subsequent misrepresentation by a toothless Justice System.

Related:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/girls-sex-assault-case-tossed-177816061.html

Remember The Soldiers? Or Go Shopping?

November 11 is Remembrance Day (Photo credit: Enokson)

On November 11th, the commonwealth countries will show their respect for the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could enjoy the benefits of living in a free world.   It is recognized as a national holiday here in Canada and up until a few years ago, the entire day was set aside to reflect and remember.

A recent editorial in the local newspaper bore testimony to how even a day such as Remembrance day is no match for commercialization.  The editorial was titled “Sunday shopping affected on Nov. 11″.   Sunday shopping affected?  Affected?  Doesn’t that sound to you as if Remembrance day is intruding on one’s right to shop?  Yes, that’s what I got from that also.

I have always had an issue with the new Sunday shopping laws that now allow stores to opening earlier on Sundays to help those who make shopping their hobby.  Read my blog here.  When a holiday as important as this falls on a Sunday, the least we could do is show some respect and observe it to the fullest.  It’s only one day versus how many days some of these soldiers spent in war zones fighting to make it possible for us to go shopping.

Remembrance day is a great opportunity for us to sit down with our kids and tell them stories about the wars.  Children love shoot em up stories with villains and heroes so we could take advantage of this and spin an interesting story for them.  This way,  the fading memory of our soldiers would never be forgotten when we are gone.

The editorial should have been, ‘Remembrance day halts Sunday shopping’.

Just my take, Lest We Forget.

Related articles

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• Sunday Shopping Affected On Nov. 11
• Shop or Family?