Hi Mom! Since you're probably the only person who reads my blog. Here ya go.

Andrea

Six years ago I bought a '98 Camry with 70k miles on her. Today, I learned that repairs will be more than she's worth. She basically needs a new engine. I'm selling her to a high school shop class for parts. Basically, it's like donating to science, right?

We went over 100k miles together. I showed off her rims to the coworker I had a crush on and this June he and I took her to Disneyland on our honeymoon.

She was the only thing that was really mine as I moved from place to place through college. I paid her off over a month early, just last year.

She was a good car. I would have bought her again. (I probably would have changed her oil more often, though). I don't know if there's much more I can say about her.

RIP Andrea, 1998-2012

Cee Lo Green Re-Murders John Lennon

Cee Lo Green's changing the words of John Lennon's Imagine last night caused a twitter uproar, causing him to first respond to the outcries and then promptly delete his response. It can't be found on his twitter anymore, but other bloggers already had a screenshot.

So why all the uproar? Well, let's look at what he changed in the song and why what he changed it to made no sense. Then, we'll look at his deleted twitter response and show exactly where he misses the entire point of that line in the song.

The lyrics to Imagine include the line:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

Mr. Green decided that imagining no religion doesn't sit right with him, obviously holding his own beliefs himself, so he changed the last line to, "And all religion's true." All religion is true? So, Jews and Christians are both correct; Jesus both was and was not the Messiah. Muslims and Hindus have it right and now that Cee Lo Green has cleared that up, they can stop fighting over in Kashmir. Buddhists are also correct when they say there is no magical ruler Godhead at all and we are all merely subject to the cycle of death and rebirth until we find "enlightenment," which, in most cases is only reserved for men.

The uproar was immediate, not just from non-believers, but also from fans of Lennon who may or may not have their own spiritual beliefs and could still understand the meaning of the song beyond, "It says no religion, must be 'anti-God,'" (which is what I imagine went through Mr. Green's head when he changed decided to change the lyric).

Cee Lo immediately tried to explain himself when the uproar occurred over social networking sites and tweeted this:

First, you meant no disrespect? You're an artist yourself, are you not? You don't understand the implications of taking someone else's work and changing it because you don't agree with it (or understand it, in this case).

Well, he's an idiot, that much is now clear, and a lot of people lost respect for him last night because of it, but lets move on to the second part of his tweet, which he has since deleted.

"I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that's all"

Mr. Green, how blind you are. I want you to imagine for a moment what a world without any religions would really, really mean.

Imagine 9/11/2001 just being another Tuesday.

Imagine women in Saudi Arabia able to walk out into the sun.

Imagine albino children in Africa living out full, healthy lives without fear that someone will slaughter them over a superstition.

Imagine women not being buried in the ground and having rocks thrown at her because she committed adultery.

Imagine no Heaven's Gate or Waco.

Imagine people going directly to police when a child is being molested instead of that molester having a herd of people hiding his crimes for him and letting him get away with it.

Imagine no one caring what goes on in someone else's bedroom.

Imagine equal rights for all people.

Need I go on, Cee Lo Green?

The song wasn't attacking belief itself. People believe crazy shit all the time with no consequences. Religion, however, tells people what to believe and then tells people how to act based on those beliefs. Everywhere, every religion is a stifling, oppressive operation to control the masses. If you wanted a world where "u could believe what u wanted that's all" then you would imagine a world with no religion. Way to miss the point entirely while alienating tons of people.

Cee Lo Green took down the tweet and there are some twitterers out there who are defending him, which will make him sleep better at night, I'm sure, with his bias confirmed by all his like-minded religious fans who enjoy being told what to think by people in robes, but the damage is done. I'm disgusted with him, disappointed and I'm like "Fuck You."

2011, Goodnight, Sweet Prince

UPDATE: I should clarify that the statement below calling 2011 shitty was not from the perspective that I personally think it was shitty. For me, it was a great year. I should have elaborated. The world lost a lot of big names, including Steve Jobs and Christopher Hitchens. Republicans took power in the House and proceeded to do nothing for the nation and there's a chance that someone I could meet this next year either was, or saw, a student who was peppers prayed in the face. Anyway, correction made, carry on.

Tonight we wave goodbye to 2011 in true Millennial fashion. We're going to a party we've RSVP'd to via Facebook, and will be tweeting the events of the night via our smartphones, having intellectual conversations (hopefully not too many) with young hopefuls who see 2012 as the next greatest year of their lives. They might be right, or it could just be that in retrospect, 2011 was just so shitty.

I don't think I'll know a lot of people at this party. It's an opportunity to reconnect with a friend from Placerville who just moved to Davis. Despite our efforts to connect and "do something sometime" we haven't been able to make it happen until said Facebook encounter. Social Media has changed the way we party.

If you've been following my blog, you know I haven't made very many local friends and I haven't made any I see on a regular basis. The moments I have in the Placerville area hanging out with my besties are cherished moments and the one or two times I've been able to connect with coworkers outside of the daily grind hold me over from becoming a cabin-fevered maniac, driving my poor husband insane (or, more so than usual), but on this New Year's Eve I'm reminded that I don't have to give up any connections to make new ones. (Cue cliché reference to "Auld Lang Syne). After all, should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Hell no, I'll see my homies in the New Year.

Please have a safe holiday, everyone, and remember there's no excuse to drink and drive. Peace.

Christmas!!

Happy Christmas, everyone! So, you'll all be jelly when you hear what Chris and I are taking home this Christmas.

First mentionable, we got a roaster. That's right. Removable lining for easy cleaning. I'm going to buy a whole damn chicken tomorrow and try that thing out.

We got tons of goodies from both sides of the fam. Yummies and coffees and things. Socks and pretty smelling shower gel. I got a mini muffin tin, a camelbak, a bike light and a bike speedometer. I also got a can of pepper spray for when I jog in the morning. I got three books. One is the fifth boom from A Song of Ice and Fire, one by Temple Grandin and the other is a book by the author of Buddhism Without Beliefs, which is awesome because he does a great job of laying out the principles of Dharma without the superstitious stuff getting in the way.

Chris got two PS3 games and A set of the Star Trek movies. I won't be seeing him for awhile, I can be assured.

Best of all, I got to spend the holidays with my awesome, quirky, fun family and my wonderful husband. That's more than I could ask for. I hope everyone had a great holiday! Merry Christmas!

Hitch

His last years after his cancer diagnosis were spent using the time he had left to do the greatest good that he could. He offered his own medical condition to doctors to test new treatments, knowing it wouldn't improve his chances. He did it for the next generation. He continued to be outspoken against the atrocities of organized religions and refused to allow any zealots to make the mistake of claiming he might have a "deathbed conversion." He was a role model for humanism and for furthering the scope of science and rational thought to the very end. He will be truly missed.

Testing the new Blogger app

Let's see how it does photos.