Lest We Forget: Memorial Day 2016

Thank you so much...  It's not really enough, but it's all we can do now. 


  

I'm sure (I hope) most countries have a day of commemoration for those who have fallen protecting it.  For those unfamiliar with ours who would like to know more, here is a link to some information:


U.S. Memorial Day

Egyptian Mummy with Tattoos

I recently ran across this article, and was fascinated.  Wish they had more pictures!!

Egyptian Mummy with tattoos


 

Thoughts on Death, Part 2: Urban Death Project

Now THIS is my idea of the perfect burial...

Urban Death Project Aims to Rebuild Our Soil by Composting Corpses

I LOVE cemeteries, but I'm not in love with what is done to most corpses, or to what is done beneath the ground.  The toxic embalming fluid, the lead coffins, the concrete "tubs" that coffins are put into so that the ground doesn't sink.  As the article says, it's NOT good for the earth.  And what better way to take care of our earth than to become a part of renewing it by donating our bodies when we no longer need them?

Of course, we'd have to create new ways to memorialize our dead, because I'm sure there will be many who would still wish to do so (including me).  Perhaps scattering small name/date stones or putting up a "memorial wall" with names and dates in a special garden around the site would be a good idea. 

What's your idea of the perfect burial method?  And how would you want to memorialize your dead?

Less Adulting, More Kidding

I found a link to this article in one of my groups on LinkedIn, and felt it was something Important (yes, with a capital 'I') to share with you:

"Adulting": Because Being a Grownup Should Only Be a Temporary Affliction

I LOVE this article!  It really speaks to the way I've felt ever since I realized how horribly OLD I had become while taking care of my mom for the last couple of years.  I never had time for fun anymore, and I was too tired to care when I did have a few minutes to spare.  Hell, I didn't remember what fun WAS after a while, and my son was all grown up so I didn't have him as an example anymore (one of those Millennials she was talking about).  So now I'm looking forward to less "adulting" and more "kidding" (oh, the places I could go with THAT, hehehe)!!

Now, to go home early from work and pull out my Monster High dolls...  :-)


Wanna come over and play?? 

Thoughts on Death, Part 1: Death Tag

A goth friend of mine sent me this tag; apparently it's going around YouTube.  Needless to say, it seems rather appropriate for this blog!


Here are the questions:

1.  How would you like to die?

2.  What would happen to your blog?

3.  Who will you leave money to?

4.  What happens to your body after you pass?
5.  What do you want your funeral to be like?

6.  What will you miss the most that still exists after death?

7.  How will you want to be remembered?

And here are my answers:

1.  How would you like to die?

Peacefully in my sleep would be ideal.  However, if I have to be awake, I'd like it to be as painless as possible, with my favorite music playing.  (And although I love both songs, I think I'd rather hear "Stairway to Heaven" on my way out instead of "Highway to Hell", just to be on the safe side!)

2.  What would happen to your blog?

Don't know, and don't really care as I won't be here!  That's assuming it still exists by then, as I plan to live for a very long time yet.  ;-)

3.  Who will you leave money to?

Money?  What money??  Who has money??? 

4.  What will happen to your body after you die?

 

 I want it to decay and go back into the earth.  I DO NOT want to be embalmed for any reason!  Just put me in a shroud, or at most a cardboard coffin, and bury me deep.

5.  What do you want your funeral to be like?

Whatever makes my surviving family feel best.  But I want "Dust in the Wind" to be played either at my funeral or at the graveside.

6.  What will you miss the most that still exists after death?

Chocolate, of course!!  And my family, and music, and dancing.  And my cats.

7.  How will you want to be remembered?

 I hope I will be remembered with love, and that I lived an authentic life.

  

Now I'm tagging these lovely bloggers (it's optional, of course!), and looking forward to reading their answers:

 ~ Little Corp Goth Girl
~ Goth Gardening
~ The Everyday Goth
~ Roses and Vellum
~ Little Gothic Horrors
~ Goth It Yourself
~Vampire Rose

But if you're not on this list and you post answers anyway, please let me know, I'd love to read them!  :-)

Music Review: Disturbed

Oh, WOW.  This song came on the music channel we were listening to the other night, and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.  I'd never heard of the band before, but their 2015 version of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" is so incredible that I HAVE to have it! (Bought the CD yesterday.)  Sorry, S&G, but THIS is the way your song should be sung.  The video is excellent as well, and totally fits the meaning.

The Sound of Silence - Disturbed

Turns out Disturbed is classified (for those who care about these things) as a heavy/industrial/ alternative/nu metal band rather than goth, but the lead singer, David Draiman, draws on many styles, including hard rock, heavy metal, punk, grunge and new wave.  When he listed The Cure, The Smiths and The Misfits as influential bands (along with Kiss, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden), I knew he was okay.  ;-)

Here are a couple more songs/videos of theirs that I really like!

The Vengeful One

The Light


Enjoy!

Deadly Quote of the Week

May: "I'm SO Goth..."

Here's looking at you...
 

"All shall be well, and all shall be well..."

I grew up without a car; living in San Francisco made it actually easier (and cheaper) not to have one.  I got my license around 1986, but didn't actually own/drive a car until 1988.  Even then, a car was just a car.  It got me where I needed to go.  I kept it fed and watered, and got it fixed when needed, but I didn't think much else about it.

However, since getting the Sentra in February, I've been much more fascinated with it than with any other car I've owned.  When I go out to the parking lot, I look at it and feel like I'm in love.  I think about driving it when I'm not.  And I actually get jealous when Martin takes it for the day.  It's not that it's only two years old; my other cars were about 2-3 years old when we got them.  I've never felt superior about having things before, so this really threw me for a loop.  It was very weird, and was actually getting embarrassing.

Then I suddenly figured it out.  For years, I've been telling myself that "things have GOT to get better", but they never did.  Every time we fixed something on the van, something else would go wrong with it very soon.  The bills mounted up and I had to scrounge to pay them.  My mom got worse and needed more care.  I was stuck in a job I didn't want.  Things never got better, we just exchanged one problem for another, and there always seemed to be two to three problems going on at once.

But this car is "something better".  Yes, we now have an extra $240 in car and insurance payments every month, but because I got what was left in my mom's accounts after her death, we are able to afford it. And everything works.  (Knock on wood!)  The A/C, the heater, the CD player, the radio, they all work.  I don't have to shift into neutral when stopping so that the transmission won't buck.  The seats aren't broken.  All the dashboard lights and the gas gauge work.  And the paint isn't peeling and chipping off because the primer and/or the paint was bad (all Plymouth Voyagers and Dodge Caravans built that year apparently got bad paint and/or primer, at least the white ones; there should have been a recall on the paint job).

So this car is actually a sort of talisman for me.  It's physical proof that things not only can get better, but they ARE getting better.  And I'm clinging to that so that I can deal with the other things that I'm still trying to fix.

And yesterday, I noticed that the auto-withdrawal from my checking account for my credit consolidation payment went from $581 (!) to just $17 (!!).  I think I'm DONE with it, woo-HOOO!!!  Which means that one more thing just got better.  So here is a happy Goth to help me celebrate:


 
                                                        (I'd love to credit this, but the name is cut off; I found it on Tumblr.)

When one door closes...

... another opens, or so they say.  Last night a door that I thought was closed years ago suddenly showed a crack of light around it.

I left work early yesterday; for some reason, I'd been tired and groggy all day, and I was starting to make so many mistakes that I was afraid to trust myself any longer with someone's financial aid.  I went home and curled up on the loveseat in the living room to wait for dinner.  I wasn't asleep, just dozing, with absolutely nothing in my head (other than the squeaky-floored basketball game Martin was watching), when all of a sudden a VERY clear voice in my head said:  "You can go to Egypt and Crete."  HUH?????  Ooooh, wait, I can...

After my mom's bills and burial arrangements were all paid, I inherited the remainder of her pension fund.  Because I "inherited" it, I can't keep it or add money to it, but I can take money out of it whenever I want to.  I'm already using use some of it to pay for my museum certificate program; then I figured I would get a retirement account to put the rest into.  However, now I'm thinking that maybe I should use some of it to go to Egypt and/or Crete.  I honestly never thought I'd ever have the money, and neither trip is cheap.  But why not go?  I'll probably never have another chance, at least not until I'm too old to really enjoy it!

So now I am getting started.  I got out my expired passport and will be renewing it shortly.  And I have already chosen the tour agency through which I will be making my arrangements, Ancient World Tours (AWT), based in London.  They have many different tours to Egypt, and recently added one to Crete!  I "met" the owner, Peter Allingham, through an online group we were both in, and he was kind enough to allow me to quote him in my master's thesis.  Of course, that was back in 2006, but I'm sure he'll remember me... NOT!  ;-)

I shall now go and check on my "suitable for Egypt" gothic wardrobe.  Stay tuned for updates!

Deadly Quote of the Week

Sorry this is a little late...

This is a quote from Somerset Maugham, recorded shortly before his death in 1965 by his nephew:

"Dying," he said to me, "is a very dull, dreary affair.  Suddenly he smiled.  "And my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it," he added."