On labeling people and rap stars

I know, my title sounds bad, but I'm sure it got your attention. To begin, the two thoughts have nothing in common but instead are two random ideas that came to me at work today.

I figured that I needed to write a short blog, thus recapturing your attention and beefing up your self-confidence as you will surely possess the ability to quickly skim in in much less time then the last one, thereby increasing the number of times you visit my site and ultimately making me look good. I have also decided that I've not had an impersonal rant for a while and sometimes I amuse myself when I point out what's wrong with society, and who knows, I may just be able to entertain you as well.

To begin, my first thought will be on labeling people. I've always wondered how to successfully pull it off and now a T-shirt store in a mall has shown me the way. It's great. You see they specialize in custom T-shirts, you know, the kind that you can embroider a logo or print a picture on. All in all, it wasn't overly exciting, until they set out some new T-shirt designs hoping to attract attention and stir the imagination of passer-bys. My new favorite shirt:

I'm a great Dad, just ask _____

That's right. For Father's day you can go out and get a shirt for dear old Dad with, you guessed it, your name on it. I mean it's bad enough those shirts that have a picture of the person who it's for on it, in case you in some bizarre circumstance constantly forget what you look like and need reassurement when not near a mirror, but to actually put YOUR OWN NAME on the shirt? Wow. I mean how bad would that be? You are labeling people, or branding them. I mean next thing you know there will be shirts with:

I'm whipped, just ask my girl/boyfriend _____

- or -

I'm a mindless drone, just ask my owner _____

Of course you'd have to be to wear one of those shirts in the first place. ... Hmm, I think I just figured out something, hey- who is having their birthday soon?

And now on to my next thought - rappers. I mean they parade around with gold teeth, more metal chains around their neck then you'd find on a John Deere 9600 Series combine, and driving around in bullet-proof-land-mine-resistant Bentleys. They get shot in the face, have moltov cocktails thrown at their 'homies' and are at war with competing factions. Many are involved in drugs/prostitution/murder/rape... and they sing and dance. It just seems very odd. I mean you take everything dangerous, deadly, and illlegal in society and combine it with song and dance. It's like Fight Club meets Barney.

I'm not quite sure if my point got across, but think about it for a bit. The dangerous criminals in society that threaten peace and prosperity fund everything and gain popularity by singing. I do that in the car, Andrew Lloyd Webber probably does it all the time, and Barney made millions off of it and now rappers? It seems funny to me.

So that's it, see, I promised it would be short. Um... I suppose I could do some kind of 'rap' to conclude this blog but it really wouldn't be the same since you wouldn't be able to hear me/see me dressed up in parachute pants (they are still cool, right?). Hmm, well I'm hungry, I suppose that can sum up things, and I think I'm going to make pancakes from scratch, which really means I'm adding milk to powder out of a box, burning it all for a bit and then having my father take over when he can't stand the smell any longer.