It’s a short week this week! YAY - we had yesterday off, I have no idea what the public holiday was, but it was a day of sleeping in, doing shopping, reading my book and going to watch Seether live in concert! Which, since they became huge in the international market is awesome having them come home for a gig! :)

The weekend was good, too good to have ended really *sigh* but one must soldier on, and tomorrow is mid week again, and then - time to take it easy! I have decided to do as little as humanly possible on the upcoming weekend - it's time to chill, paint my nails, read a book or two, watch some DVD’s - and even as I type this, I know it highly unlikely to happen, even with pleading poverty ~ I might have to switch off my phone... (Might also be too late considering the plans for Sat afternoon and Sunday afternoon... shit - I did it to myself again)

So the concert last night was awesome, it was held in central Johannesburg, which has been cleaned up pretty well, but it's still not fun driving through the dodgy as hell areas to get there, we decided that with all the makeup we had on the music we were blasting - there was a VERY decent chance that we would be left alone! Seether is a rock/hard rock/metal band, my mate Squi and I decided that we had to go, the latest album is too awesome for words and the previous ones, well they fall in the same category! The people were clad in black, piercings and tattoos were rife and the support bands were shit hot. When Seether finally got onto the stage (not too late, about 9pm) everyone went nuts. We danced, screamed, sang, jumped up and down and basically let the boys know that they really should come back more often to visit. Squi and I were directly behind the mosh pit, which started up every time the music got heavy... so allot really and between jumping and shouting we were avoiding being slammed into by people who find it fun to further brain damage themselves using bodily harm. Basically you look out for them rocketing towards you and shove them back into the pit of heaving bodies. Man... What a night, that’s how Mondays should be spent, not at home watching TV - but at a rock concert! :)

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OK - so it’s later than a week after I stared this post.. Thought I should have definining line - the before and after section as such! :)

Another weekend gone by, allot of fun was had, there are a few surrounding issues, like one mate thinks her boyfriend cheated on her... with me. Sheesh you can't even be mates with a bloke without people assuming the worst. All I have to say with regards to that is: what. Ever.

OK - work has been madness, still is, so I have to go - hope you have a great week!

xxx

Chris Roper - my favorite columnist and editor for News24 (a South African News etc website www.news24.com) recently wrote this column, i thought i so brilliant that I sent it on to friends and family and now want to share it with my good cyberspace buddies!

Stay tuned for a propper update on all things Julz ;)

Much love
me
xx

God: 1 000 000, Norman: 0

My favourite cartoonist of all time is Gary Larson. One of The Far Side cartoons depicts a game show with God and Norman as contestants (and my memory might be faulty, so if anyone wants to sketch in the details, do so here: www.chrisroper.co.za

In the cartoon, God is looking pretty damn confident, and has scored a million points. Norman is on zero, and looking very frustrated. The caption is something like "That's correct! Another 300 points for God, and our current champion hasn't even scored yet!"

I mention this because the latest marketing attempt from mainstream religions is - wait for it - an "interfaith game show, pitting Jews against Muslims, Sikhs against Christians and Hindus against Buddhists, with contestants competing for cash prizes."

Now even I know this isn't going to be a good idea.

If you think of it one way, it's pretty obvious that the contestants from the One True Religion are going to have an unfair advantage. Which religion that is, we don't know yet, but I can't imagine that religion's god not taking this opportunity to smite a couple of unbelievers at the same time as winning a cool thousand pounds for the poor box.

If you think of it another way, this is going to be the most boring game show in history, since if there's one thing I know about True Believers, it's that they always have all the answers. It'll be like God vs God, with no Normans in sight. And you know what happens when an interfaith game show hits a stalemate, don't you? Yep, helloooo the Middle East.

Whimsical

Still, Faith Off, as it's whimsically called by the Islam Channel in the UK, is going to be a laugh a minute. Behold! As insular small-town Christians pray to their god for the answers to the multiple choice current affairs questions, such as "Is Jesus a) white; b) black; or c) Jewish?"

And marvel! As Muslims implore their god to intercede in the humorously named "home or away round, when contestants can answer questions on their own faith or the opposing team's for further points."

"In Christianity, are women who drive a) nuns; b) godless sluts who must be stoned; or c) American?"

I'm also not sure how traditionally pacifist religions like Buddhism will do. Does your average Buddhist have the balls for taking on the more warlike religions? I doubt it.

Fred from Ideate.co.za, the reader who sent in the idea for this column (yep, if you want to request a Column On Demand from Chris, you can. Just go to www.chrisroper.co.za and tell me what you want me to write about), said this in his mail: "Chris, check this [interfaith game show] story out: imagine doing something like that in SA - it can be called Race Off... I think you should write one of your giant, iconoclastic lead articles on it. Just send it to me first for editing else you'll get 'Bullarded'."

Water it down

After I'd looked up the words "iconoclast" (apparently, "a person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions, etc., as being based on error or superstition") and "Bullarded" (apparently, "adopting a pose of martyrdom while regurgitating stereotypes"), I thought about the concept of Race Off.

For some reason, that makes more sense to me than an interfaith game show. After all, what can be gained by understanding more about rival religions? All it does is water down faith, which is in opposition to understanding, and then you end up with people getting nervous about losing market share and becoming fundamentalists who bomb abortion clinics and tall buildings.

With Race Off, though, you might actually benefit from realising how absurd your beliefs are. With race, you can laugh at yourself. With religion, laughter is mockery.