Death to a 7 year old

I find it hard to answer a lot of questions from my 7 year old. One of the oddest was around death. As we passed a cemetery the other day he asked what all the stones were for.

Obviously at 7 years old he knows that people die, so my response seemed more than adequate. "When people die, they are placed in a cemetery with a stone that marks where they are. The stone can say different things, but usually has their name, birth date, date they died, and perhaps something they did, or a favorite phrase."

I get really thought provoking questions all the time, and didn't think this one was very hard. It can be really difficult to explain something "adult" to a child using language and metaphors he will understand without a common reference to build on. Some are like trying to explain the color green to a blind person; this wasn't one of those ... So I thought.

As he goes to church with his Mom, I should have expected the follow-up. "So, when they go to heaven, their skin is put in the ground?" Interesting. "No", I said, "their bodies are put in the ground". "Oh, their bodies are in the ground and their skin goes to heaven?", he replied. So, now what? With one last gasp I tried to just say it all goes in the ground.

Thankfully, he didn't reply. Something else attracted his attention, much like the passing of a cat to a dog.

Who watches the watchers....

It is getting increasingly concerning the amount of leverage our government is getting in "watching" us. From smart cameras, to phone taps, to now Cookies.

The worst part of it is that I am sure this has been going on since surf tracking technology was envisioned. The other scary part is how many other sites are doing this, regardless of whether they are government sites or commercial sites. Anyone who uses the web on a regular basis should scan the computer for cookies, AdWare, and malicious processes. The freeware available for this is enormous. Personally I would recommend the use of at least two different providers in order to get the best possible coverage.

... permissum superficies caveo ... (a little too literal, but you get the point)

Are you kidding me?

Imagine a land where you can exchange files of any nature for free. No need to worry about steeling money from a hard working film producer, director, actor, actress, or musician. Simply place any item you have on a peer-to-peer network and start swapping with others. Clearly this land would have to be special.

This increasingly hypothetical land would have to recognize that the creation of technology to store and copy material clearly erases any silly copyright laws. Well, apparently such a country has stepped up to the plate and batted one out of the park. Unraveling a tapestry that has been carefully cared for and meticulously folded by nations around the world.

Yeah, you guess it. France!

http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20051222/D8ELFHC0B.html?PG=home&SEC=news

Unbelievable...

The first post

Strange how empty a blog is at the start. All these thoughts and ideas and a large infinite canvas on which to write.

Let this post be the first in a long line of posts about anything and everything under the sun. Let some be silly, some be intelligent, some be thought provoking, some be poetic, and some downright stupid. Of course that latter will always be the easiest.

Let the writing begin ...