Record Store Day + 420

Happy Saturday/Record Store Day/420, everyone! I thoroughly enjoy all three of those things but today I have an even bigger news to get excited about. Today is my friend Jamie's sister, Sarah's wedding and I have been invited to attend as long as I sing a song. This is an incredibly generous gesture considering I'm not even remotely related or close to his family and that they're willing to let me eat, drink and be weird at their daughter's wedding. It does however bode well for me as a quasi-musician because if I do one day decide to drop everything to become one, I can at least get free food and drinks by singing at people's weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, birthdays or any event at which my taken-for-granted-talen can serve to entertain people.

One thing I would like to also mention is that I'm participating in my first ever long-distance run. That's right the Vancouver Sun Run will be one of the things I get to cross off my 2013 to-do list. This year is especially important considering the recent tragedy that took place at the Boston Marathon. Thus in the spirit of moving forward; both literally and figuratively, I am proud to be a part of collective culture which represents more than just Vancouverite's love for the outdoors.

Finally, I just want to turn your attention towards this little review Scrambled Debutante garnered in this recent week. Seriously, there's so many things going on right now, I'm jealous of myself.

Adventure Time

 Heyo! I want to take some time to talk about my current favourite thing on Netflix right now and that thing is called Adventure Time. Sure, I might be several years behind on the hype  but it took me a while to truly appreciate the absurdist and silly humour of the show so if you ask me, I say I'm just on time for maximum viewing pleasure.

Besides the awesome animation style, out-of-the-box story telling and just about the best kid-friendly one-liners ever, the show is also extremely avant-garde, conceptual and imaginative. Take for example Jake the Dog and how he seems to to have no limits to shapeshifting at his own connivence. Having worked with kids, this is like a dream come true - to be friends with a talking-dog who can transform into anything he wants during times of crisis. 

The show is also clever in that the humour in it is campy without being cheesy at all. Both the characters are already so genuinely sweet and decent that the show never try to insert preachy moral lessons like most of kids shows which gets super trite and stale very quickly.

If you haven't seen the show yet, you owe yourself to do it. I've always been a big fan of cartoons and Adventure Time is so weird and cute that it suits anyone who identify as those things. 

Some Kind of Hate

I almost never wear pants anymore, leggings have won the battle of comfort and style over them. Although I know a great deal of people who are into fashion would disagree with me but I want to pay a tribute to them.

I've been listening to a lot of old school punk lately. By a lot, I mean exclusively The Mistfits (Glen Danzig era only). Static Age remains one of the best punk albums ever made.

Tax Season is Good News for the Working Poor

Tax season is great because it means that the Canadian government will be paying me back some of my well-deserved monies that they've been holding hostage for the past year.

As I was filing my taxes (that's right, I am THAT capable) earlier this evening I realized just how much we undercut ourselves based on our incomes and tax deductibles. Actually, this realization came to me earlier last week when I was freaking out over my lost credit card and had to file for fraud on the last purchase on the statement. I was all worried that the fraud claim meant that my life will be overrun by investigators and corporate lawyers grilling me on every bit of fiscal detail. The whole time I was thinking "why would they just re-credit my account without even flinching? $300 dollars is a lot of money!"

Truth be told, I panicked a little because I was so afraid that no one would believe me and will eventually fault me for being so careless with my belongings. Then, after half an hour of me pacing in my living room, dreaming up escape strategies and mentally writing down a list of my most cherished things I would leave for my loved ones once I skip town, I remembered to resort to logic instead. What I deduced was that to a multi-billion dollar corporation like the bank, to say that $300 is peanuts to them,  is even beyond an understatement. It would made absolutely no sense for them to go into a full-fledged investigation on a $300 credit card fraud. Even if they did, it wouldn't involve lawyers and investigators knocking on my door. It would've been collection letters or some other annoying "this-is-a-vague-but-stern-warning" forms of notice stuffed into my mailboxes over the span of four months until I eventually give them back the ill-gotten credits.

After realizing this, I began to feel sad for myself; and then, anger.

My rage response was catapulted by many reasons. The first of those is that I had entirely based my sense of self-worth on how much money was in my bank. The fact that I had psyched myself out so much both because I lost $300 and my credit card was a prime example of how much money determines my mental state thus state of well-being. Then that was exacerbated when I eventually realized just how "unworthy" I am. Not long after a period of temporary illusion of "THIS $300 DOLLAR DISCREPANCY IS GOING TO RUIN MY LIFE BECAUSE MY FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES IS OF GREAT INTEREST TO EVERYONE." Which is also depressing and demoralizing because I felt like a powerless little person in at the mercy of giant financial corporations.
Honestly, just think about how much freedom you gain when you have more money in the bank. If a large part of a human being as a free-agent is her volition to act based on her own accord then it's fair to associate money with freedom because money way more opportunities, thus way more freedom. If freedom is one of the fundamental goals and aspirations for a person wouldn't the relinquishment of that freedom defeat a sense of purpose, identity and self-worth? Thus isn't money one of the most evil things we are all love to hate and hate to love? FUCK!