Ain't Godda, Anymore

Are you one of those folks who try to correct someone when they use the word, "ain't?" Stop. Give it up. Let it go. Get over it. "Ain't" has tenure.

I've been around long enough to see thousands of new words added to the dictionary, and hundreds more dropped. I've seen the brand name Aspirin turned in to the generic term aspirin, such that if you look at the ingredients of an aspirin bottle, it says it contains aspirin, not acetylsalicylic acid. The brand name Google is now also used as a verb* (I'm going to google his name to see who he is). The English language is not dead, it is living, expanding, ever-changing. We no longer need to appease our grandparents. Ain't is de facto common American-English. Get over it.

Any argument against the usage of the word ain't is superfelous. The dogma that one is somehow less of a person for using it is insane. Unless one is using Microsoft Office, if one keeps doing the exact same thing over and over expecting different results, one is employing insane behavior. How many folks have been saying - how many time have you been saying - over the years "Ain't isn't proper English." Well neither is answering, "Who is it?" with, "It's me!", the rules would suggest saying, "It is I." I'd bet you've never said that in your life.

If you use the word ain't occasionally, don't feel guilty. If someone has the audacity to correct you, tell them to "Get over it - ain't has tenure." If their educated enough to figure that one out - they'll understand, and if not - oh well.

In my lifetime, I think the USA may have gone from the first or second in leading scores for math and science in K-12 to probably the dead last, even behind most third-world countries. Unless these teachers go to Dubai or China to teach English, I doubt they would find higher pay, or an apropriate audience anywhere else in the world for their less-than-pragmatisic views. Let's worry less about one using the word ain't and more about arthmatic, science, and telling time (on both analog and digital clocks). There certainly is more to fix in one's own life then to try to fix another's vocabulary.

You ain't got to tell anyone not to use ain't, anymore. You have my permission.

*see reference: http://dictionary.reference.com/dic?q=google&search=search

Facebook vs flickr

Today, I tried an experiment. I created a new group on flickr.com called Rojer Rojer Rojer.
The other day I had noticed that there are nearly 400 FaceBook users who use the spelling of R•o•j•e•r. Looking through the listing, I noticed that they are a diverse group. So I figured it might be a neat mash-up if the FaceBook Rojers shared their photos and culture on Flickr.

Alas, not an easy task to promote the idea. FaceBook, and with good reason, poped up a warning to me that my efforts violated the terms of usage agreement, as I had tried to send the same message to a few of those folks. The warning stated that I may be engaging in abusive or offensive behavior, and was told that my behavior was anoying. It isn't the first time I had heard this, but this was an algorythm telling me so. Now, that is a first for me. Anyway, I understand. It is an unsolicited message, which is half-way to SPAM, which I understand to be unsolicited bulk messages.

So how do I promote or attract these other Rojers? I guess I'll just have to wait and see if anybody joins. However, in the meantime, I will post the message here, just so it might get picked-up by the spiders at Google and CUIL.

Hello.

I am Rojer, an admin for a photo-sharing group called Rojer Rojer Rojer at http://www.flickr.com/groups/imrojer/ .

Flickr is a service of Yahoo! You can have a free flickr account which allows you to share up to 200 photos for free, and you control the tags and copy-write, who gets to see, print, annotate, or comment on your pictures and even whether your pictures are searchable.

I am inviting you to join this public group simply because part of your name is "Rojer" and you are unique. The group is intended for sharing photos representing you, your family and friends, but most of all, your culture, style and talents.

I hope this message finds you well and if you are not interested - just delete and forget about. Otherwise, take a look at the group's or my photos and decide if you are willing to join and share.

I hope to see and hear from you soon.

Thanks.
Rojer
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rojer/

Going to the group link from above takes you to the group's main page with the following description:

About Rojer Rojer Rojer

This group is for you if your first name (forename), your last name (surname), or any of your middle names is Rojer, regardless if you got it at birth, by marriage, by adoption, or changed it to this spelling.

This group is not for you if you are a "Rodger," a "Roger," or a Rajah, et cetera. I will remove you, not because you are not worthy or I don't like you, but because the first rule of this group is the spelling of your name. No offense intended.

I'd like to see photos of you, your family and friends, but mostly - your culture. Show off your ethnicity. Share the parties, food, music, style and your unique contributions to the world. Links are welcome.

This is a public group - I don't think I want to make it by invitation only, yet. As such - please post only family friendly photos and language. However, feel free to refer to moderate content or the occasional restricted content, but make sure you make it clear, that is the type of information you are referring to, we thank you for this in advance.

There are nearly 400 Rojers in Facebook, I haven't checked MySpace, but there is a growing number here on flickr as well. If you know of another Rojer, invite them, encourage them to become Flickr members and start the sharing.

So, on with the show, even if nobody's watching.

Sweet Dreams

I just had to compare:

And:

With the original:

I have to say, that Marilyn Manson is entertaining in the most perverse way - I had to laugh through most of the song. That's some funny - if not truly weird - stuff.

I haven't found a full version of Britney Spears' cover, but she seems to be quite the soft-porn-star, from what I can tell. Not that that is a bad thing, mind you. But.

The Eurythmics made a classic tune that should hang out in various forms for years and years to come. Thank you Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart.

Then I got to wondering - how many others did a cover. A quick look at Apple's iTunes Music Store showed nearly a dozen different covers of the Eurythmics' tune. Turns out that Sweet Dreams is a popular title to use and the Eurythmics' sub title (Are Made Of This) isn't always used by the bands doing the covers.

I found the artist in iTunes Music Store include:

Automatic (a trance - house version)

Axxis

Badi Assad, et. al.

Bebel Gilberto (a Brazilian-like style)

Countdown (a copycat version, in the K-Tel style)

ibiza Dance Party (can you say RAVE)

Krystal Meyers (another copycat. Any relation to Brystal Meyers?)

Marilynn Manson (Drama Metal, Theatrical Metal, Dusty Corners of Hell-Metal)

Mika

Overdub & Sophia (a few other techno, trance, rave versions)

Señor Coconut (A totaly different Brazilian?-like version, kind of cool)

Térez Montcalm (a sexier version)

and finally,

Wykked Wytch (a cover of Marilynn Manson's cover, only a more over-the-top, scream like a puking banshee version).

I am sure I could easily find a dozen more on e-music.com or elsewhere. Sufice it to say, it is a song worthy of imitation, modification and even obfuscation by a diverse group of talented (and not so talented) musicians.

I think I'll go back and give the two South American-style covers a serious listen. Señor Coconut (the name says enough) and Bebel Gilberto each had an interesting take on their cuts.

I may revisit Cover Tunes in subsequent posts. Hmm.

Of Gay Marriage, Didn't Jesus Say...

If I remember correctly, Jesus said, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's."
I think I believe it is Caesar's duty, our government's mandate, to provide equal security for all it's citizens, equal education for all its citizens, and to facilitate good business practices.

Perhaps it might behoove the "Anti-Gay Marriage" folks to be good dogmatists and practice minding their own business.

Let Caesar take care of its citizens in a fair and equal manor without freaking-out over semantics. No religious sect owns the word "marriage." The state issues the "marriage license" and should do so equally to its citizens. The only change made to that process might be perhaps to call it a "civil-union license" or similar phrase. But that is a superfluous argument at best.

I believe Jesus also said of God's blessings, "the greatest of these is love" and I don't think he said who gets to decide who got God's good blessings and who got God's bad blessings. We are under a new contract and the old law is completed - finished. We are supposed to judge ourselves, not others. That's God's job. And God is Love. Let Love rule. Let Caesar do his sworn duty, to protect all his citizens - equally.

The New Great Depression of 2010

As we usher in a new era of unbelievable recession, let us not think that it will get better any time soon. Like the Great Empire of Rome, I think we are about to get burned. The fat, dumb and happy has grown too large, while the over-achievers have gotten quite easily too greedy.

It seems that economically, monetarily, emotionally, educationally and spiritually speaking, we are a nation, if not a world - out of balance.

It seems to me is that what we have here is a failure to govern intelligently. The ENTIRE system is broken and needs to be refurbished. Democrats - Republicans, what ever! They are both failures. We need a better balance of decision making. Perhaps we need a three to five party system - with honest, intelligent folks instead of self-righteous, self-serving bureaucrats. There aren't any quick, easy solutions, but we have to insist that our entire set of governments get their priorities straight. Let's start with Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, modify it for local, state, and federal issues, where personal security takes precedence over national security, where educating the young takes precedence over empowering incarcerated criminals, and facilitating business to help local and national needs. We MUST enforce honest, global, generational-minded ethics and ensure that rewards/punishments fit the benefits/crimes.

We need to start thinking 7 generations ahead rather than seven minutes until our next pleasure. We need to fix the voting system and start voting and start enacting and enforcing our votes.

But then, maybe it's too late.