Cogs can think.

I need to make a mark fast. I need to get really rich, really quick. I discovered a grey hair. Now, I’m already balding badly, but the grey hair did it.

Soon, I’ll be 30 and married. I’ll have 2.3 kids, a Korean SUV, and a dreadful 9-to-5. In other words, I’ll be dead.

FIONA!

Why would you look at that, Alanis Morisette’s new song and accompanying music video, off her new album, “Flavors Of Entanglement“.

And now I’m all confused. What am I supposed to do with this? Seriously, I really don’t know what to think of this. Is this good? Is this bad? Can someone help me? I’m a long-time Alanis fan, one who was disappointed by So-Called Chaos because it was too slick, too poppy, too simple - still much better than most other musicians’ material, but just not the best Alanis can do. And this song kind of feels the same. It has some nice tricks (the beats outside of the chorus are brilliant in their simplicity), but I just don’t feel this is the best she can do. It’s catchy, it’s easy to listen to, but I just don’t feel like it’s going to stick.

Lyrically, it’s brilliant, as usual - typical Alanis. There are few who can write like she can. “Look at us form our cliques in our sandbox/look at us being cruel kids with both our hearts blocked”. Not bad, not bad at all.

This might be one those songs that grows on you - she has a few of those. In addition, it’s never wise to discredit an entire Alanis album merely by looking at the singles. Alanis usually shines on the non-single tracks, where she dares to be more experimental, more adventurous.

It’s not a coincidence that her best material after Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie comes from Feast On Scraps, a collection of previously unreleased tracks.

One key feature for most users was a sense of community. Even though blogging is an inherently one-to-many activity, most readers felt a personal connection to the author. This could foster the feeling that the reader belonged to the community even in the absence of participation, and led those who did participate via comments to agonize over their content.

Hi, I’m Thom Arvid Holwerda, born on 1 December 1984. I have two brothers I never talk about, because their (in)actions severely damaged the connection I had with them - most likely beyond repair. And I don’t even care. My mother suffered from breast cancer a few years ago, which taught me a serious lesson about mortality. I have a lot of friends whom I appreciate and love dearly. I vehemently oppose the death penalty, legalised guns, and intolerance. The principle of unconditional equality is one of the two most important values - together with unconditional loyalty to the people I care about.

I am superawesome, incredibly smart, incomprehensibly funny, and NOT AT ALL ARROGANT.

Now, CONNECT GODDAMNIT.

Walk on shells tonight
Can’t do right tonight
And you can’t say a word
Cause I leap down your throat
So uptight am I

I never said I was perfect
But I can drive you home

Such a beautiful chorus. Every time I hear it, I can’t do anything else but commend Shirley on having written this utter piece of brilliance.

It made me sick to my stomach. It gave me a headache. It made me want to turn off my computer. I didn’t want to see this, and yet, I continued to watch it.

These are children we’re talking about. CHILDREN. Tabulae rasae. Doing this to them is, as far as I’m concerned, child abuse. I hope that whenever the time comes that this sort of religious programming of children sets foot in my country, my government will act strongly and swiftly and declare it illegal.

Children must not be brainwashed like this. Adults - I don’t give a rat’s ass, adults can make whatever decision they want. But children. CHILDREN. CHILDREN!

It seems I have seriously changed my preference in women. And then I mean the looks department, as the character department is still the same.

I used to be a total long dark hair person, and eyes didn’t really matter to me. However, these days, I’m totally into lighter hair colours, preferably natural blonde, with bright, blue eyes. Blue eyes are enchanting. Green eyes are okay too - my Fiona has them, and one of my ex-girlfriends had them too. Green eyes are mysterious. My eyes are darkblueishgrey, by the way.

My last, err, object of affection had brown eyes. Maybe that was why it went so horribly, horribly wrong.

I SURE FCUKING HOPE SO.

There’s one moral issue I’ve been struggling with for a long time now.

You see, for everything in this country, you’ll need a permit, a license. Want to drive a car or a motorcycle? Better invest thousands of Euros in driving lessons and a license. Want to externally alter your house in any way (even if you own it)? You need to get a permit from the local government. Want to go fishing? Get a fishing permit.

Want children? Go fcuk someone and pop out a kid nine months later. No permit needed, no license, no lessons. You need not pass any tests of competence.

Which is peculiar, to say the least. Raising children isn’t an easy task, and requires strength of will, determination, and the ability to completely put your personal needs aside for the benefit of your child. You need to be able to make yourself irrelevant, as the well-being of your child is much more important than your own. Not everyone has the ability to do this. Not everyone has the ability to love someone else unconditionally.

My parents have. That’s why I turned out so loving, caring, and all-round SUPERDUPER AWESOME.

However, a lot of people don’t. This year’s ’spring break’ (to put it new worldishly) lasts two weeks instead of just one. This is causing problems for many parents, as their jobs may not allow them to take two weeks off instead of just one. Complaints aplenty.

Well, tough luck. In order to fix this, you might have to organise spring break differently this time. Instead of both parents taking one week off at the same time so you can go on vacation, you’ll have to be a bit more inventive and, for instance, have mommy take the first week off, and daddy the second week. It’s not as if the vacation dates for this school year weren’t already known for god knows how long.

When you have kids, you’ll have to make concessions. You can’t and both have full-time jobs, and go out every weekend, and go on vacation whenever you wish, and have children. It just doesn’t work that way. You effectively gave all that up the moment you both decided to have a go at it without the pill.

This is not all the parents’ fault, of course. Especially when it comes to single-parent families, or simply poorer families, our government is not doing enough to help these people in their times of need. Welfare checks are way too low, and financial child support is near nothing. Which is interesting, seeing the Christian parties have a strong say in parliament and the government.

So, what’s the moral issue? Well, should we allow just anyone to have children, uncontrollably, without any checks as to whether or not people are actually ready or capable of being good and responsible parents? Should child molesters be allowed to have children? What about murderers? The mentally ill? The mentally handicapped? Are those people capable of raising children? Should they have the right to have children?

What about this one? Should a daughter and her father be allowed to have children? Their first one died, their second one is still alive. They pleaded guilty immediately, explaining their relationship is completely consensual. The judge took the consensual nature into account, and released the parents with a 500 AUD fine.

It’s not the incestuous relationship itself that that is the problem here. I may have a deep and strong physical and mental aversion against the whole concept, but this does seem to be a consensual relationship - whether or not these people are psychologically sound and actually capable of making consensual decisions like this is a different matter altogether, and not for me to decide. The problem here, of course, is the children. Can these people be called responsible parents? These children have a high risk of serious genetic defects due to their incestuous parents, and it’d be hard to argue the parents did not know of this risk. In addition, these children will face a life of hell. Forever will they have to bear the burden of their heritage, there’s a large chance they will be outcasts, which may even lead to them developing serious psychological problems. And their own children, in the future, will still be susceptible to serious genetic defects.

Consequently, in my book, these people are not responsible parents, and therefore, should have never been allowed to have children in the first place.

The problem with this moral issue is this: who gets to decide if people are fit for parenting? Who gets to evaluate prospective parents and say, look, I’m sorry, but you are not fit for parenting? I think most of us can agree that child molesters should not have children, but what about all the border cases? Heck, I’m sure there are many who would consider the right to have children so sacred, that it cannot be taken away, not even from child molesters.

So you see my dilemma.

It’s funny how you can see the concept of evolution all around you.

During lunch break at work today, I overheard the news on the radio; a few teenage girls had died in a gas explosion. They were trying to get high off natural gas. IN A COUNTRY WHERE YOU CAN SCORE DRUGS ON EVERY PLAYGROUND.

That’s natural selection at work right there. We should be happy they don’t get to pass on their genes.

I’m feeling worried. This is the first time I’m truly feeling worried ever since my mother got sick. I nearly forgot how it felt.

Twiek has been outside, away, for nearly seven hours now. That’s not unusual for a cat. It is, however, unusual for Twiek. This cat is now nearly two, and he’s never been outside for much longer than ten minutes. He hates going outside, he’s terribly afraid of all the ‘outside stuff’. Sometimes he does run outside, but he barely ever leaves the recessed entry of my front door. He usually gets scared shitless because, I don’t know, a leaf fell down. And then I’m stuck with a scared cat with a puffed tail. Which looks totally cute, by the way.

And now he’s been away for SEVEN HOURS. And it’s been pitch-dark for three hours now.

I’m worried something happened to him. I know my cat well, and this isn’t like him at all. He’s a very pretty cat, and someone might easily mistake him for a thoroughbred - and theft of thoroughbred cats is quite common in The Netherlands, since thoroughbreds are worth an awful lot of money.

I don’t think I’ll be doing much sleep tonight if he doesn’t show up soon.

Update: I can go safe to sleep. I opened my backyard door for the 127241th time, and this time, he came walking in. Pretty as ever. I wonder where he spent those 8+ hours?

My previous entry got hijacked (unintentionally, I’m sure) by a religious debate - welcome to teh intertubes, I suppose.

Anyway, this link got posted. A quote:

ATHEISM IS NOT A RELIGION OR A FAITH!

Atheism, by definition, is the absence of theism. If you cannot say “I believe in a Deity/God/Supreme Being” then you are an atheist. If you are not a theist, then you are an atheist.

And thank you for the insult. Let me explain.

I am not religious, and do not ‘believe’ in a god/do not think there is a god. In fact, I don’t really give a damn either - my life is perfectly complete without guys with beards in the sky telling me what (not) to do. I don’t need a book to tell me how to behave. I’m fine with people needing the guys with beards and the books, don’t get me wrong, but I’m fine without it.

However, I do not, in any way, wish to be associated with “atheism”. People who call themselves atheists have this very, very nasty habit of feeling superior to religious people, of looking down upon them, of belittling them. “Atheists” never pass on an opportunity to profess their atheism, their moral superiority, and they more often than not try to convert religious people to atheism.

Exactly. For all intents and purposes, atheism has become a religion in and of itself, complete with feelings of moral superiority to those who are not atheists and a drive to convert others to atheism (to spread the faith). So yes, if you look at the true meaning of the word, anyone who doesn’t do the beard and book stuff, is an atheist. However, out in the real world, atheism means a whole lot more, something I do not wish to be associated with.

Of course not all atheists are like that, but many of them are, and they ruined it for everyone else. Which, coincidentally, brings atheism yet another step closer to religion.