Religion

My official stance on religion is that I am an atheist. I do not believe in God or any type of 'higher being' who may have created the universe, or who has any sort of purpose for us. I believe that there is no purpose to life; we must create our own purpose. This is called 'existentialism.' There is no life after death, and contrary to popular belief, religion is freaking dangerous! It concerns me that people think it's okay to be religious. I know this will offend people, but why is it so offensive to criticize someone's religious beliefs, but not their political beliefs, or other kinds of beliefs?

I grew up an atheist; neither of my parents attends church, reads the Bible, or does any sort of religious stuff. I always took the non-existence of God for granted. In grade 9, everyone in the Challenge program took Philosophy, where I learned the word 'agnostic.' I decided to be agnostic for a while, then realized that I was kidding myself. There is no God.

This year (grade 12), I have started realizing that there aren't a lot of things I believe with more certainty than the fact that God doesn't exist, and that (organized) religion is pretty ridiculous. Just knowing this isn't really enough though; I wanted to have arguments for my position. So I've started reading atheist arguments. So far I have read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and The End of Faith by Sam Harris (if you only have time for one, I like The God Delusion a lot better). These books have further proved to me that my stance is correct, though admittedly I am just reading affirmative literature. Next up: some anal religious text!

My unofficial stance is that I am a Pastafarian, which means that I believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM). Followers of the FSM believe that the world was created by the FSM. The FSM first created a mountain, trees, and a midget. Short people are those who have been touched the most often by his Noodly Appendage. In our heaven, there is a stripper factory and a beer volcano. Every Friday is a holiday. Pastafarians believe that global warming is caused by the lack of pirates (there is a direct correlation between the rise of global warming and the number of pirates!), so the official garb is full pirate regalia.
See: The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Some excellent observations on religion:
Ten Foot Cock and a Few Hundred Virgins - Tim Minchin
Sports, Ads about God, Homosexuality - Wil Anderson from 1:18
Wil Anderson @ Melbourne Comedy Gala 2007 from 2:08

Comedians

I have recently been getting way, way into comedy, mostly British and Australian comedy.

Some awesome Australian comedians are:
Tripod (band). They started this whole venture into comedy, FSM bless them.
Paul McDermott (who also sings, and was a member of DAAS and GUD; hosts GNW and hosted The Sideshow)
Wil Anderson (hunky, smart, used to host The Glass House, paints his nails, and his cat sleeps on his groin; need to know more?; he's also the host of a new show, The Gruen Transfer, as well as co-hosting the Wil and Lehmo radio show)
Adam Hills (fantastic standup routine similar to TJ Dawe; also hosts Spicks & Specks, which is... not funny.)
The Umbilical Brothers
Tim Minchin (satirical songster, currently living in London)
The Chaser (stars of The Chaser's War on Everything; both seasons are uploaded on YouTube!)
Hamish and Andy, who have a radio show, The Hamish and Andy Show. How... original. They also show up on Rove every once in a while and do funny stunts such as ghosting!
Good News Week --> Mikey Robins, Claire Hooper
I like Wil and Adam because they both bring up issues in their comedy - women's rights, the war in Iraq, etc. - and make insightful points about them. I think this is the best role of comedy. Not just to make us laugh, but to make observations on the absurdity of some of the things we do. I like Tim Minchin because he also brings up issues in his songs, mostly about religion. And I think he is so right.

Some awesome British comedians are:
Russell Howard & Jon Richardson
Ed Byrne (I just like him cause he's cute)
Noel Fielding (seriously weird but oh so cute; and the hair... the hair!)
Rainer Hersch
Mock the Week (show, hosted by Dara O'Briain) --> Frankie Boyle, Hugh Dennis
Never Mind the Buzzcocks (show, hosted by Simon Amstell. funniest show ever.) --> Bill Bailey

American:
Russell Peters is pretty funny.
Bo Burnham is a 17 year old musical funny man. Wow are his rhymes tight! (-snicker at self-)
I dislike most American comedy. Think: Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park.
I saw the Pajama Men and the Cody Rivers Show at the Fringe Festival as well, and they were both really good.

Canadian TJ Dawe did a fantastic show at the 2007 Fringe Festival called Maxim & Cosmo that struck about a bazillion chords with me.
Kiwis Flight of the Conchords are very silly and have a cool TV show.

I'm probably forgetting a load.

Mr. A-Z

Jason Mraz is my favourite musician, and has been for years. He is an American singer-songwriter, but so much more!

I discovered Jason by means of the radio; I heard You and I Both and The Remedy back in 2003 or 2004, and from those two tracks I bought the CD. I don't think Jason's recorded work is nearly as good as his live stuff, but it's still fabulous.

I saw him live in July 2006 at the Malkin Bowl in Vancouver with Anna and her friend Seanna, and obviously it was FABULOUS!

Listening to Jason is like listening to no one else. His music makes me feel, like no other musician can make me feel. He is a born performer, and his stage presence is out of this world. He transports me to another world, he makes my heart swell, he makes me smile and laugh and cheers me up when I am bored or sad and he inspires me beyond belief. Jason has some magical ability to make a connection with his listeners, above and beyond the connection you might feel with other musicians that you listen to. The beauty and connection I feel with Mraz is inexpressable. I just feel lucky and blessed that I have it.

The Trickster In My Mind Lives in the Past

Sometimes I think how I'm going to tell someone, who isn't always anyone in particular, about what's happening to me. I think, Today I made dinner. But I think it while I'm making dinner. I'm living a future moment instead of the present moment. Bad me.

I should have looked more closely at the UVic course guide to see what was good because I keep finding more cool classes. Theatre 101, for example. And film studies 295. If only it weren't year-long. Why are so many of the courses year-long?
Why can I not go to school for the sake of learning, but instead I must be in the pursuit of something, i.e. a degree? I don't want a degree. I want a diploma from Camosun. Speaking, well, writing, of which, I should, (I didn't really need a comma there at all but it just seemed the thing to do) call them and ask where I am on the waitlist.

I was looking at the exchange program that UVic has with universities around the world and I was getting excited. Living a possible future in Melbourne or Hamilton in my head. And doesn't the future look grand. Far more interesting than the now, when I all I have to do with my life is eat and write boring blog posts after having watched a movie and finished my book of short stories (which was excellent by the way; it was Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories), made spaghettini, studied a bit of Spanish, reintroduced myself to Matchbox Twenty (well, just the one album. the very very good one.), installed iWork 08 and discovered that this computer doesn't have nearly as many fonts as, say, the eMac. Or the iMac. Bleh.

I need to clean up my room but I don't know where to put everything. I have systems and boxes and places even to put things that have no place, but eventually I run out of places, I encounter an object that has no place in the schema of my room (I loved Psych 11), and that is where I am now, with hundreds of non-schema items and thus nowhere to put them and they clutter my room and, what was the word Philip K. Dick used for such stuff? kibble? I think it was kibble. I'm pretty sure it was kibble.

I still need to give Frida back to Shika, but actually back to her parents because Shika is at Harvard and it would be a little silly of me to mail it over there.
I also need to give Britney the key to the filing cabinet in the student council room and give her all the ESCAPE info and other stuff that Maggie gave me, which is in a box and on the computer and takes up lots of room as well as a couple of headaches (though I'm sure not nearly as many as Maggie had).

I need to find a place for my new computer stuff. For my multitude of socks, which don't seem to want to fit in the drawer any more but instead have molded their way into a half-sized SEARS bag that sits where my backpack used to be. At least I moved my back pack. I moved it downstairs and put it on top of the other backpacks, which are on top of an 11 year old moving box. My mom tells me every second day to hang up my clothes and clean up my room, and yet there are dozens of 11 year old moving boxes downstairs. Hypocrite. Hypocrites are one of the things I like least. It's... disgusting and frustrating and annoying and morally incorrect and just... urrhhhhhhhhh.

I need to give my trophy back.
I need to wake up tomorrow morning for my first day of women's studies, after missing the first day, because I didn't think I would be taking women's studies this year, but now I am. Ah.