MY LIFE - Why I shouldn't be taken to church!

Sigh!

Okay, so I'm at my wife's church. Her parents are there. Me, my daughter, and her son are listening to her sing a hymn in her lovely operatic soprano on front of the whole church.

What happens right in the middle? Out of my pocket comes a loud trilling noise that sounds like a cartoon character tiptoeing, as the alarm, that I thought I put on silent, goes off for the whole church to hear!

Sigh!

SPIRITUALITY/RELIGION: Which is worst for you? Religion or porn?

CULTURE/SOCIETY: An Easter Unphotographable

I found this on the website, Unphotographable - OlderMusicGeek

This is a picture I did not take of a gaggle of kids dressed in three-piece suits and spring dresses, coagulating on a sidewalk in front of their church on Easter Sunday, punching each other's shoulders and playing with each other's hair, while one boy, a bit taller than the rest and standing out on the left edge of the group, looked right at me as I approached in my car, driving into my new neighborhood for the first time with a load of boxes, and he flashed me the widest, most welcoming happy-Easter-Sunday smile, right before looking over his shoulder to see where his cohorts were or if any adults were looking, before turning back and gritting his teeth at me and flipping me his extended middle finger.

A link to Unphotographable
A link to other Easter post on my blog

SPIRITUALITY/RELIGION: Facts Schmacts!

ON ANOTHER BLOG: "MUSIC: Country Music Ain't What It Used To Be" on OlderMusicGeek's Stupid Entertainment Stuff (just click here)

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Some Of My Favorite "Tweets" From Twitter

	feliciaday OMG. Ok, I won't link anything else today, I promise. But this...... http://tinyurl.com/5sp2rf is the weirdest thing I've seen in a while. 04:51 PM August 09, 2008 from web
	Ghoulash How about "Marvel Muppets"? You could have Cookie America, the Letter-X-Men, Iron Monster, Fantastic 1-2-3-4, Big Spider and Hulkleupagus. 03:14 PM August 08, 2008 from web
	marcel46 Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus. 06:38 PM August 04, 2008 from Twinkle
	tarawood My face hurts:) he gives good hugs. 09:54 PM July 17, 2008 from txt
	doctoranonymous What's the geek factor if one refers to spouse with Twitter name? 08:18 PM July 16, 2008 from web
	misterperturbed Why hello there giant spider-varmint. Have you been exposed to photographic chemicals & wanna give me super powers? Wait where are you goin? 11:09 PM July 10, 2008 from web
	jfalconer @msaleem As sick as that is, I think I'm going to be laughing for at least half an hour. 11:26 AM July 11, 2008 from web in reply to msaleem
	msaleem Really surprised me that Hancock is homophobic. I mean, especially after a name like that, sheesh. Get your act together man... 09:02 PM July 10, 2008 from web
	scHarvey sun burned, sore muscles, exhausted brain... yep, it was a good weekend at #8035 10:13 AM July 06, 2008 from web
	daxazo The church smells weird today. 06:43 PM July 01, 2008 from txt
	OlderMusicGeek @sushiday - god, you're torturing me with that banana bread description! 12:56 AM July 01, 2008 from web in reply to sushiday
	tweelings_en HATE> I hate it when people just fall off the face of the planet. http://tinyurl.com/65xyb5 06:51 AM July 01, 2008 from twitterfeed
	sushiday @OlderMusicGeek Oh yes, it's wonderful. An ooey gooey mess of chocolatey banana deliciousness! Mmmmmm... banana bread... 10:51 PM June 30, 2008 from twhirl in reply to OlderMusicGeek
	OlderMusicGeek @sushiday - (in homer voice with drool running out of my mouth) hmmm, banana bread with chocolate chips! want to send some my way? 12:42 AM July 01, 2008 from web in reply to sushiday
	shannonhilson Flogging Molly, where have you been all my life? Nothing beats discovering a new band to love. 10:17 PM June 30, 2008 from web
	sushiday Making banana bread with chocolate chips... mmm it smells good! 05:04 PM June 30, 2008 from twhirl
	ClarkKentPlanet I found this site, http://www.zod2008.com/. I don't think it's very funny! That's just sick! 09:12 PM June 22, 2008 from web
	OlderMusicGeek @ilovealgebra - are you excited about the trees? or do you have a phobia of trees? 08:24 PM June 19, 2008 from web in reply to ilovealgebra

CULTURE/SOCIETY: A Mother's Day With Kids And A Cat

This a little late, but my computer was down. I got this from my mother. I don't know if this is real or not. Tried to look it up on the internet, but I couldn't find it. Supposably, Ellen DeGeneres read it on her show. - OlderMusicGeek

So, we had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died. Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on this mat in our bathroom.

Well, we have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old. The middle one is Eli. Eli really loves chapstick. LOVES IT. He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it. So finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and how he could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done.

Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I am trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up.

Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood.

We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally round the corner to go into the bathroom. And there was Eli. He was applying my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . . rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped." Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right--their little butts do look pretty chapped.

And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind.

And the only question to really ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth.

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt.

A link to all my Mother's Day posts

ENTERTAINMENT and POLITICS: Record Label Gives Iraq War Vets a Musical Voice

This is from Rolling Stone. I found it through my NetVibes page. I edited down for space. But here's a link to the complete article. - OlderMusicGeek

To The Fallen Records is a unique record label in that it puts out compilations of songs written and recorded by veterans of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – some even recorded in the field. On the occasion of the release of the new compilation To The Fallen Records Presents: Rock Vol. 1, Rolling Stone’s Evan Serpick took a look at the origins of the label. To read the full, in-depth exploration, click here.

In 2005, Army Sgt. First Class John Freeman III's platoon was drawn into a firefight with local insurgents in Iraq's Al-Anbar province, killing twenty-three Iraqis and suffering one casualty. Afterward, Freeman was approached by the platoon's chaplain, who encouraged him to attend church services. "I explained to him that it's kind of hard for me to go to church," says Freeman, 37. "It's hard to forgive myself when, tomorrow, I'm going to go out and do the exact same thing." Instead, Freeman sat down and wrote a song, "Don't Try and Save Me": "It's going to take more than time to wash away the pain," he sings over reverb-heavy electric guitars. "The bloodstains on my soul could never, ever come clean."

The messages range from patriotic anthems to Bush-bashing tirades. In "Sleeping Giant," metal band 10 Fold — fronted by Army Spc. Eric Conley, a Humvee gunner who patrolled the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad — lashes out at the terrorists who invoked American wrath: "Your God can't save you. . . . You'll be gone soon." Backed by the sounds of gunfire, Dirty Boi Vets — Marine Sgts. Tendaji Akil-Milele and Sugarray Henry — question their mission on "Combat Zone": "CO telling us we won't be that long/I still think we killing them for no reason."

A link to the complete article in Rolling Stone

ENTERTAINMENT: Cool Pic

Found this pic at Digital Traveler at http://digitalartphotographyfordummies.blogspot.com/and I thought I'd share it.