Sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction.

Oh, my God.

It rather shocks me that someone went to the trouble of making a website like this. It's a website specifically put together to send out a mass Email when the rapture comes, to explain to your friends and relatives where you've gone; assuming that you're Christian.

How is this accomplished, you might ask. It's a dead man switch that will automatically send the emails when it is not reset.

Huh. Raises the obvious questions: a) how does the guy who's running the site know that he's not gonna be left behind when the rapture shows up, and b) what if the guy running the site gets run over by a runaway steamroller?

And, of course, prominently displayed on the website's page is a link to make a donation.

I have no issue with religion; but using religion to make a cash grab, or to exert influence over those who have no association with that particular religion is something I find to be somewhat, well, evil.

Ouch.

I'll say this for Lion Dancing, it has a way of making you rather brutally aware of every single muscle in your body.

We probably put in a total of about thirteen hours of lion dancing this weekend. Thirteen hours. That's a long time to be dancing under what amounts to a gigantic blanket. Actually, it went very well. I enjoyed it enormously, and I have a really good partner for the dance. We've got a solid level of communication going on between us.

She was a huge livesaver yesterday, and I'm not at all certain that I mean that figuratively. We were dancing around a mall. Lots of fun, stopping at stores all over; doin' a little dance, grabbin' a hunk of lettuce, taking our paycheck; etc, etc. etc.

My partner and I had just completed five consecutive dances (which doesn't sound like much, but trust me, it takes a lot out of you); three of which required me to lift her onto my shoulders. Suffice it to say, we were both rather tired. Nobody was coming in to spell us off, and it was getting to the point where I thought my back was going to be permanently fixed at a 90 degree angle from my legs. So, someone comes in to replace my partner, and at this point, I'm dying. We do two more stores; my partner's replacement is all fresh and energetic, and here I am just trying to keep myself upright. We do another store during which I'm pretty sure I heard my lower back screaming in protest.

So, my Lion Dance partner (God bless her) shows up after only the briefest of breaks to let me out of the tail, while I'm wondering if she's gonna have to physically pull me out of the lion tail and roll me out of the way. It very nearly got to that point.

She managed to get her butt out of the lion a little farther down, but I cannot emphasize how much I needed that one break.

All in all, this weekend went well. About eight hours of lion Dancing on Saturday, another five-ish on Sunday. I think I lost about 30 lbs in the last 48 hours, and it ain't even over yet.

We have another dance on the 18th, which includes some rather nicely-done Kung Fu demos.... well, hopefully nicely done. The first demo we did turned out quite nicely, so I can't complain there.

If all goes well, we'll give a hell of a show on Friday.

On the Role of the Catholic Church in my Life

I got into a discussion with my significant other's family over the Gay Marriage issue. They're strongly Catholic, but they are also very strongly in favor of Gay marriage, so to some degree it wasn't so much a discussion as an agreement; but we did cover some very interesting ground in that chat.

The Supreme Court of Canada specifically stated that the only way in which Gay Marriage will be consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is if Religious officials are not required to perform any marriage ceremony that is not in accord with their beliefs. I see this as a perfectly reasonable limitation to place upon Gay marriage. If the Church doesn't want to perform a same-sex ceremony, they're not required to do so.

In other words, regardless of whether this law passes (and it should do so fairly easily), the Catholic church will have exactly the same level of autonomy where marriage is concerned that it did before the law was passed. They will still be able to define marriage in whatever manner they wish: one man, one woman; two men; two women, and any combination of two consenting adults that you can imagine within their specific religious framework, limited only in such a way that close family members may not wed. All that this one law means is that no one religion is defining marriage for those citizens who do not share their beliefs.

I see this as perfectly reasonable. I'm neither Catholic, nor Christian; which means that I do not acknowledge that the Catholic church has any power whatsoever over my life, or their authority to determine what is best for me. What right does the Catholic church have to say to me "We will define marriage this way, and so should you?" Likewise, what right do I have to say to the Catholic Church "this is the way I define marriage, and the Catholic Church will simply have to step in line?" The answer to both questions is "none."

Religion and government: in a country where we have freedom both of and from religion, the two are necessarily sepaparate entities. No one faith should be allowed to write the laws of the country, and the laws of the country should ensure that no person shall be obligated to reject their faith. No law exists which states that a person may not pray in a public classroom. However, no law exists which forces students who do not wish to pray in a public classroom to do so. No law exists which forces a pregnant woman to abort her child; likewise, no law exists which prohibits it either. Should this law pass, no law will exist which allows any religious institution to perform a same-sex marriage; but no secular prohibition of same-sex marriage will exist.

In essence, this law, should it pass, is an eloquent demonstration of the separation between religion and government. Government will not force any religion to act outside their beliefs, and no religious institution will be able to force the government to act in accordance with their beliefs.

Lions and Kung Fu and Swords (oh my!)

So, we survived our first show, managed to keep ourselves breathing, keep ourselves together, and the show went without any real hitch. All in all, no complaints.

We started with the Lion Dance (and that's L-I-O-N, not L-I-N-E), which was probably the single most solid lion dance we've ever done. Everything just came together. Linda and I walked through our corners and did our routines without a hitch; something which pleased me to no end, since there was a time when we weren't sure if she'd even be in the dance tonight. She was, which made all of us very happy. It would've been kinda a bummer for her to be put on the bench 24 hours before the show.

My solo form went very well. Not perfect, mind you, but it was solid. I messed up in a couple of spots, but I don't think that anyone in the audience noticed.

Rock breaking, wire breaking, chopstick breaking... Kung Fu folks in general like to break stuff.

We then jaunted over to the local Chinese restaurant, loaded up on more food than I thought I could fit in my li'l stomach, and more cognac than I knew I could afford, and generally had a good time.

All in all, last night goes in the books as a success; for SiFu, for the school, for me personally, and for all of the students.

Yay.