See all of these AND MORE on the Weasel Report Photos page, or on my Flickr page!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FF78B82C63427F7

here]]]>

See all of these AND MORE on the Weasel Report Photos page, or on my Flickr page!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FF78B82C63427F7

See ALL EIGHT videos on the Video Reports page, or on my YouTube page!

(For the next week, we will be taking donations for a new video camera, probably a Flip! Please use the yellow donate button on the left hand side of your screen! We really appreciate all of your donations, and will use the camera to bring you new and interesting content to the website!)

One of the first social networking websites that gained massive popularity was MySpace. Ten years ago, everyone had a MySpace page, and used it to keep up with all of their friends and to share music before it became illegal to share copyrighted music. Eventually, when that generation moved on to high school, [... Read more here]]]>

One of the first social networking websites that gained massive popularity was MySpace. Ten years ago, everyone had a MySpace page, and used it to keep up with all of their friends and to share music before it became illegal to share copyrighted music. Eventually, when that generation moved on to high school, they joined Facebook, back when it was exclusively for college and high school students, and required you have a school e-mail address in order to be able to join. Finally, Twitter entered the picture, taking the status update trend to it’s peak by simplifying it and making it mainstream. Within the past four years however, Facebook opened up to the general public, allowing anyone and everyone to join. And within those past few years of it being open, they’ve changed the layout more times than most social networking websites do within a twenty year period. With these changes have come controversy, and the state of Facebook is up in the air, yet, it continues to be extremely popular.

Who? What? Why? (Credit: Screenshot by Weasel Terrahawk from Facebook)

The latest update, however, completely changed the way the information is relayed to the user, which has annoyed a large audience which has used Facebook for quite some time. The way your friend’s updates were sent to you is the main feature that has changed many times over, until now, where it gives you an information overload. Before, you had the option to just receive your friends’ status updates on the main page, giving you the main information that your friends wanted you to have. Over time, Facebook modified the home page to show you whenever your friends changed something on their profile. Now, you see not only their status updates, but every time they add a friend and when they fan a page or join a group. Most of this is extreme information overload, as you don’t know 90% of the people that your friends are becoming friends with, yet Facebook finds it important to let you know this information anyways.

Following this mess, they also reorganized the top bar and left sidebars in a very inconvenient way. When you first look at the top bar, you’ll notice next to the Facebook logo three images, all which drop down when you click on them. The problem is, unless there is a new update and they are lit up in a lighter blue, you can barely see them as they are a dark blue on blue background. This color choice doesn’t seem to make much sense, as these buttons still can be useful to the ordinary user if they could see them more properly. And even though there is a new button for when you receive new friend requests at the top, you still receive an alert in the right hand sidebar telling you that you have a new friend request, making it redundant in one of the two locations.

An unoriginal design. (Credit: Screenshot by Weasel Terrahawk from Facebook)

The left sidebar was also updated in order to, in theory, organize all of the major functions of Facebook better. However, in doing this, they’ve hidden some of the features that were normally out in the open behind other menus that supposedly make sense. To find the Video section, you now have to first go into the Photos dropdown. While, in an effort to save space, this could make sense, for those who are looking for videos on a whim, they have to go searching through the menus to find it. Another issue which has come with the new sidebars is the size of the page. In what can only be assumed as an attempt by Facebook to appeal to those users who still are using a low resolution on their monitor, they’ve shrunk the page so that it fits into a smaller area. However, in doing this, they also kept all of the previous pages at their same resolution, meaning that pages which were once longer are now squished together to fit into these new dimensions, making them look much less professional than they have been before.

Even though Facebook has all of these shortcomings, there is still one major use for Facebook. Facebook is one of the leading social networking sites on the Internet, meaning they get an immense amount of traffic daily. Small game developers have used Facebook as a platform to host their games, and they can even make money that way, especially when enough people play the game and spend real money in order to obtain in-game items. One of the leading examples of that is Farmville, now an award-winning game in a new category that has been showing up in many video game award shows lately for Best Social Networking Game. They are able to have their company and make a profit just by having their game on sites which use an Application platform which was started by Facebook, and now has been adopted by MySpace, which also has games such as these.

The Weasel Report Fan Page on Facebook. (Credit: Screenshot by Weasel Terrahawk from Facebook)

But another one of the main features of Facebook is for companies and businesses. Just like on Twitter, companies can use Facebook to make a page specifically for themselves, and can update their fans or consumers on the status of their projects, to hold contests, or just to advertise whenever they have an update on their website. It’s a great way of getting your company exposure to a massive amount of people at once. Even the Weasel Report has their own Facebook Page which updates it’s fans whenever there is a new entry here, and even allows fans to comment on those entries there if they don’t want to comment here. For a website or company owner, it makes it hard to not participate in Facebook when you know there is so much potential to communication and connect with your fans on it.

Facebook is, as stated before, one of the largest, if not THE largest, social networking website on the Internet today. However, even while their status update idea which started by saying “Your name is…” and then having the user enter the rest, then allowing the user to remove the “is” and replace it with whatever word they wish, and eventually moving to the current “What’s on your mind?” question which was virtually started by Twitter, the site just has lost it’s originality, and keeps trying to change in order to keep people interested in staying with them. It’s main hook, however, is the ability to keep up with companies that are popular, or to advertise your own if you so wish. It’s a vicious cycle, but when you get this popular, it’s hard to let it go.

Social networking websites are what make the Internet go ’round, or so it seems nowadays. There are hundreds of ways for people to keep in contact with their friends, share information with them on their life, share events and other important information, keep up with companies that you like, or if you are [... Read more here]]]>

Social networking websites are what make the Internet go ’round, or so it seems nowadays. There are hundreds of ways for people to keep in contact with their friends, share information with them on their life, share events and other important information, keep up with companies that you like, or if you are that company, keep in contact with the people who are your fans or clients. The hard part of all of it is choosing which ones you want to use, or that might be useful to you; or if you should just use all of them. Everyone has their own opinions on which sites are “better” than others, so let us jump into the foray ourselves.

One of the most popular, yet most highly ridiculed social networking websites, is Twitter. Twitter uses a unique system in order to convey information from person to person. First of all, there are no fancy profiles; it’s just your name, your picture, and a small biography on yourself. Secondly, and most importantly, all update that are made can only be 140 characters. Many people ask why that is, and the answer is simple; when Twitter was made, they wanted a quick and easy way of getting information from one person to the other directly via their cell phones. Text messages can have a total of 160 characters, so this allowed for a username and the Tweet, as each update is called, to be sent to them in a single text message.

A sample Tweet. (Credit: Screenshot by Weasel Terrahawk from Twitter)

The team behind Twitter realized, however, that it was being used for much more than just personal updates on what a person is doing. Twitter is also widely used to convey information, such as news stories, company updates, and much more. Due to this, Twitter changed the question that they ask when you update from “What are you doing?” to “What’s happening?”. Doing this shows that Twitter isn’t out to just have you update exactly what you are doing at all times, as it was previously misconstrued to be in the past, but rather as a form of communication to share what may be on your mind, or what is going on at the time that you have something you want to say about.

Of course, this brings on a lot of questions from a lot of people. Many people complain about the fact that 140 characters isn’t enough to properly update people on what’s going on, but let’s think about it. By limiting the amount of characters in your update, it forces you to really think about what you want to say, instead of just posting a long update that will lose peoples’ interest. It makes you keep your update concise and to the point, making it easier for those reading to know exactly what you are trying to say. Not only that, but it makes keeping up with a large group of people easier, as you are getting the meat of the story right away, without having to sift through the extraneous information that just clutters up the web.

The simple update box. (Credit: Screenshot by Weasel Terrahawk from Twitter)

The support for Twitter has grown exponentially as time has gone on. While anyone can access a mobile Twitter site provided by Twitter themselves, there are also hundreds of Twitter Applications, both for your computer and on specific phone devices, which allow you to have a more customized experience when using Twitter. One such application is called blu, and was made using the Microsoft .NET 3.0 platform. Using this application, Windows users are able to use a more visual atmosphere to keep in touch with the people who they follow, follow conversations between peoples’ replies to other tweets, and use most of the features that the website itself provides. Since Twitter limits you to 140 characters, URL shorteners have become much more popular on the Internet. Blu integrates TinyURL‘s services into it, making it so that any link that you post will automatically be shortened, giving you more room to explain what the link is about.

In addition to applications, which you can even find for your phone, there are many websites dedicated to Twitter sharing that have popped up. Some examples are Twitpic, which allows you to share pictures from your computer, phone or e-mail; TwitVid, which does the same thing as TwitPic except with video; and TwitDoc, which allows you to post full documents which can be shared with your follows through a web-based client. Using these, people and companies can share information with each other, or even share important current events which they happen to be capturing and witnessing at the time.

An uploaded picture on Twitpic. (Credit: Screenshot by Weasel Terrahawk from Twitpic)

That being said, Twitter has also become the biggest source of news on the Internet, for the sole reason that it is the quickest way of getting information to potentially millions of people in the matter of moments. Many major news stories, including the plane which went down in the Hudson River in New York, were first known about by a Tweet sent from a passenger’s phone, which was soon followed by the first picture, taken from a man on the rescue ferry (source Tweet from Twitter). Many television news sites, including CNN, used this Tweet and this photo as their first response to this story, and from there, began coverage. Obviously, news sites are able to pick up on these important stories quickly, but with the help of Twitter, they can get an immediate grasp of the situation from the source directly.

Throughout all of this, there are still people who find no use for Twitter, which is completely understandable. Twitter is fully about the spread of communication and information. It’s main draw is it’s simplistic nature. If you are looking for something which has ways to waste your time, then Twitter probably is not the source for you. But when looking at the idea of “social networking”, Twitter fits the bill perfectly. If you ever do sign up for Twitter, start by looking for companies that you deal with day to day. Many companies now have Twitter accounts in order to share information with their customers and fans, which can sometimes contain discounts, or first information on new products. Then, look for people who Tweet about things that interest you. Twitter has hundreds of functions, it’s all up to what you are look for in it.

Continue reading to learn more about our support for TWLOHA in the month of March.

According to the To Write Love on Her Arms website: 121 million people worldwide suffer from depression. 2/3 of those suffering from depression never seek treatment. Untreated depression is the number one cause of [... Read more here]]]>

Continue reading to learn more about our support for TWLOHA in the month of March.

According to the To Write Love on Her Arms website: 121 million people worldwide suffer from depression. 2/3 of those suffering from depression never seek treatment. Untreated depression is the number one cause of suicide, and suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers. To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

Every human knows what it feels like to be sad, down or melancholy. It’s a natural human emotion. Life, as we know it, can be a very happy time, but there are other times when things that we do just don’t seem to go in our favor, and we become distressed by this. Some people become quiet and reserved, scared to share their emotions with people around them. Others look for support from their friends to help them make it through their struggles. And some bottle up their emotions, continuing the downward spiral towards a depressive state that is hard to get out of.

To be honest, the world we live in is far from a perfect world. We all have responsibilities that we must follow through with, whether it be a job that we must perform, school that we must attend, or another mandatory task that is asked of us as a part of functioning society. To some, life is not worth these hardships; they become depressed, distant and reclusive, and contemplate leaving the existence that we call “life” in order to end the suffering that they feel that they are enduring. The thought of suicide is a very morbid one, but one that happens more often than we think.

Personally, I am one of those who refuses to admit that he has a problem. I am, not clinically tested, but personally assumed, bi-polar. I pride myself on being a solid, steadfast person, who others can rely on and come to if they have any issues of their own. But there are times when I can become depressed, and feel that the world is not worth what many can see in it. In full honesty, in the past 48 hours, I have had thoughts of suicide myself, as I have found that there are too many issues weighing on me that will continue to haunt me for the rest of my life.

Throughout all of life that is against me though, I know that there are people in my life who love me, even as just friends, and who have attempted to support me through all of these hardships that I am enduring. And to those reading this, there is someone out there for you as well, whether it be friends that you have, or even just your parents; there is someone who loves you, and who would be deeply impacted if something were to happen to you. Suicide is not a correct action, as while you may think it ends your personal suffering, it only begins someone else’s.

For the month of March, the Weasel Report will be borrowing a similar style as TWLOHA with our font, in support of their efforts. Please visit their website if you suffer from depression and would like to find some help for yourself, or if you are interested in supporting them in what they do. If anyone reading this would like to speak to someone on a more personal basis, my e-mail address is always open (weasel [at] weaselreport.com), and I am more than willing to help, even if you are a complete stranger. Or, leave a comment on this article using the form below, and check back for replies from myself and others. Love extends across all boundaries, and no one should be forced to suffer.

As a writer and journalist, one of the most important skills to have is the ability to write objectively, and with the full extent of the facts. Many of the articles that I write are opinion articles, and share my side of how I feel on a subject, or try and convince you, [... Read more here]]]>

As a writer and journalist, one of the most important skills to have is the ability to write objectively, and with the full extent of the facts. Many of the articles that I write are opinion articles, and share my side of how I feel on a subject, or try and convince you, the reader, towards my side of the story. However, none of these articles are written without first doing extensive research into the facts of the subject. We may try and show you our side of the story, but we don’t do it without first knowing both sides. Sometimes though, it’s easy to mistake what you feel strongly about as facts, as you put up blinders to the honest truth around you. At the same time, it’s difficult to judge the full story by just a small, random sample, thus making it more difficult to try and send a message for or against it.

The reason that I bring this all up is because I have had a lot on my mind in the past week. This month in general has been a very rough one for me, as can be seen by the great lack of articles being published to the website. But in this past week, something occurred to me which was a first for me, and while, as I said earlier, it can’t be proven that the entire system is like this, it’s forced my hand on one of my article ideas. Early this month, I had an idea for an article to try and convince people against a common stereotype that has been plaguing a group of people for a very long time. After hearing what one group was trying to do to show that said stereotype was false, I was intrigued, and felt that I wanted to support them.

It’s hard to say all of this without saying exactly what it is that I’m talking about, but in the interest of not calling out a certain group of people, I will not be revealing the subject of this topic. In saying this, I need to clear the air here. These people, as people, and at least with the ones that I saw, are excellent people. They are functioning members of society, and I hold nothing against them. Unfortunately, I came to find that, while they may promote one thing for what they do, in their daily lives, they, sadly, fit the stereotype that people give them all too well. As I said, as people, they are not bad people, in fact, many of them are good friends. However, I was somewhat disappointed when I came to learn the extent of what was going on.

With this, I find that I am glad that I had not written the article earlier, as I would have felt somewhat guilty of spreading a false fact. I completely understand that there are people in this group who would fit the positive light that I would try and show in the article I would write, but with the ever increasing facts against my opinion, it has presented me with a dilemma that I cannot face to write about.

I fully understand that this article is mind boggling, and explains less than nothing, but, this has been weighing on my mind for the past week, and this is the best place that I have to speak my mind. That being said, have you ever had a time where you wanted to think something good about something or someone, and had almost convinced yourself of it to be true, but after a period of time, came to realize that, while you can see the good in them, you can also see why others have their negative opinion on it? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments on any part of this article. I apologize for the lack of updates as of late, and hope to see you well in March as we enter a brand new month, with many new challenges ahead.

Continue reading to learn more about our new February feature, EDM.

To most people in the [... Read more here]]]> Peace Love Unity Respect

mu⋅sic [myoo-zik] –noun 1. an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color. [source]

Continue reading to learn more about our new February feature, EDM.

To most people in the world, music is essential. Music helps people share their emotions using a creative means. Music is a universal language that is spoken around the world, which everyone can understand. Music comes in many different shapes and sizes, most often called genres. And one genre which is typically overlooked in the United States is EDM, or Electronic Dance Music, a genre which is highly popular in the European and Asian regions, and has recently been growing in the western hemisphere. EDM isn’t something that you can hear on a daily basis in a public setting, as very few of their songs make it to public radio, which is why it is typically found in nightclubs, or in another unique form which is highly overlooked; raves.

PLUR is a mantra that is typically associated with the rave culture. Peace, a harmonious relationship of individuals or societies; Love, feelings of goodwill and caring towards each other; Unity, the idea that we as humans are all united in the world; Respect, positive regards for yourself and those around you. While the rave scene is typically looked down upon, what people see and what actually happens are two very different ideas. The people that you meet at raves aren’t necessarily misfits, but they are people who wish to express themselves in their own way, without being judged by the stereotypes that society makes for us. EDM is a music genre that opens the mind, and allows people to celebrate the life they have in their own, unique way.

For the month of February, the Weasel Report will be featuring articles highlighting Electronic Dance Music, the ideals of PLUR, the behind the scenes of raves, and much more. We’ve even decided to change our color scheme up a bit for our banners for this month, as a tribute to the popular midwestern production company which produces raves, Psychedelic Panda Productions. If you enjoy EDM, or have stories from raves that you wish to share, and enjoy writing, please consider joining our staff. You can e-mail us at contributor [at] weaselreport.com for more information on becoming a writer for us. We’d also love to see your pictures, videos, and much more, so please feel free to contribute to articles that you enjoy with a comment or two. Thank you for reading, and we’ll see you later this month for much more.

Hey Weasel Report readers! Weasel here with a quick update for you all. Unfortunately, there will not be a usual update today due to a new job that I recently acquired. For those of you who are curious, I am now the Webmaster for Psychedelic Panda Productions, a company which puts [... Read more here]]]>

Hey Weasel Report readers! Weasel here with a quick update for you all. Unfortunately, there will not be a usual update today due to a new job that I recently acquired. For those of you who are curious, I am now the Webmaster for Psychedelic Panda Productions, a company which puts on raves in the midwest. Due to this, I have been extremely busy getting their website up and running, and updated, and looking as damn cool as possible. This also relates to my Weasel Entourage to Mascarave event which will be happening before their next rave on February 20, 2010. More information will be released on that in the next week. Also, the Weasel Radio website was given a full overhaul, and now has many new features which you can check out right away. Check back tomorrow for YouTube Tuesday, and check back Wednesday for our next full article! Thank you everyone, and have an excellent day!

I’ve always found it somewhat funny whenever people are so diligent to grab the morning newspaper and flip directly to their horoscope. Of course, it’s not to say that there isn’t some sort of validity in the idea of a horoscope, but most of the time they just turn out to be some [... Read more here]]]>

I’ve always found it somewhat funny whenever people are so diligent to grab the morning newspaper and flip directly to their horoscope. Of course, it’s not to say that there isn’t some sort of validity in the idea of a horoscope, but most of the time they just turn out to be some sort of quote, or message that someone has come up with. Or at least, that is how it seems to go most of the time. But how valid are our horoscopes? Is there something to knowing the angle of the sun, moon and celestial bodies at the time you were born, or on that certain day, that could actually mean that you can predict what’s going to happen that day, or at least give you sound advice towards it?

There were some days when I actually believed that it may be true, since it gave me great advice that I decided to take for the day, or it told me something that I could say the day was actually turning out to be. The problem that I find is that there isn’t a single, universal horoscope that everyone goes by. For instance, on a day like today, I don’t get the daily newspaper, so I can’t check what my horoscope would be according to it. So, of course, I take to the next most abundant resource of knowledge that there is in front of me: the Internet. Naturally, I go to Google and type in “horoscope”, and I get a ton of results. I decided to click on multiple of them, just to see if they were all the same, or if I should be reading a certain one that gives me the best day out of it. To my surprise, I found many different horoscopes, with no connection to each other at all:

The temptation to tell one and all that juicy secret you’ve been keeping inside will just about kill you, especially if you give in to it. If you’re brave and keep quiet, you might just be noticed by the powers that be, who will be impressed by your discretion. - horoscope.com

If you’ve been waiting for an auspicious moment to begin something new, now is the time. You’re better at closings than openings, but right now, you’ve got free rein to do as you please. - astrology.com

The hard work you have been doing lately is beginning to show positive results. Meetings or presentations show you as very well organized and knowledgeable. You may be able to bring a group together with words or ideas that are helpful to others. Later this afternoon, you may be challenging young people to write poetry and encouraging their artistic talents. There is a never ending need for original writing and you may take up the pen and create a story, proposal or poem yourself. This afternoon your homework will be exactly that . . . homework. You have company coming and will hurry through a variety of cleaning techniques that could have you huffing and puffing by the time your company appears. Advance notice is always welcomed. - dailyhoroscopes.com

Of course, at this point, I’m shocked and confused. How can the supposed exact same alignment of the sun, moon, stars, etc. come up with so many different ideas of what today should be like? This is where the idea of horoscopes fall apart for me, sadly. Then again, when you really think about it, the deep meaning to horoscopes are a lot more than just a prediction of how the day will go, or what will happen if you do what it says. Obviously, the idea of horoscopes derives from the idea of divination, which is the practice of attempting to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by occult or supernatural means [source].

Unfortunately, the concept of divination has never been accepted by the scientific community due to the fact that there has never really been any facts to prove that it works a significant amount of the time ever. And based on what I have planned for today, none of the horoscopes that I’ve listed really have anything to do or relate to today’s events. So are horoscopes just a load of crock, or is there some kind of validity to them, possibly based on luck of guessing correctly?

Continuing to research, though, I looked up my birthday specifically. For those of you who are unaware, my birthday is on December the 28th. Again, there is no way to tell the credibility of the article, but I decided to look up who and what I am, based on the day that I was born. The odd part of this is that the ideas provided by this certain writer actually happen to be more true than not.

A Capricorn born on December 28 has a style all their own. Self-possessed and intelligent, they have great social skills, including the ability to make anyone feel at home. They take pride and enjoyment in performing everyday tasks, believing it is through the minor events that character is formed and tested. They generally have a happy outlook. [source]

Now of course, reading into that could give one a bit of an ego, but in all honesty, for those around me, there is a potential that they may agree in the truthfulness of this. And reading on in that article, it goes on to talk about how one with my birth date look to lean on and see importance in being in a relationship, which I pride myself and dedicate myself to. Of course, not all of it is true (I don’t exercise regularly, although I could and should), but for the most part, this certain article proves to be very true and close to home. But does this justify that the idea of horoscopes are actually true? I have my doubts, but there is SOMETHING to horoscopes and divination that has some sort of valid point.

Try checking your own horoscope for a few days, and see what you think. Who knows, you may find that it may help you decide how you are going to go about your day. Post your opinions or finds in the comments!

That is a semi-obscure reference. 100 internets to the comment that gets it! That said here is the article.

My name is Austin Jennings, here for the first time on the Weasel Report! I am a long time friend and associate of Weasel. We have done a few podcasts (most notably our [... Read more here]]]>

That is a semi-obscure reference. 100 internets to the comment that gets it! That said here is the article.

My name is Austin Jennings, here for the first time on the Weasel Report! I am a long time friend and associate of Weasel. We have done a few podcasts (most notably our Weasel and Jennings show!), and now I’m here on the Weasel Report! I am going to be one of the new staff writers here and I am quite looking forward to it.  I personally love video games and quite enjoy them. I don’t know that I am a certain Genera fan, since I have all sorts of stuff… let’s see… Halo, WoW (Horde FTW!), Eve Online, Star Trek:  Elite Force (one AND two thank you), Guild Wars… the list goes on. Games are awesome. I’m going to be more of an editorial writer here, so less game news, more ranty news! :D Everyone likes reading ranty news right? Right!?

So yeah, here I am. I’m an open individual, I think that our current political system is bunk, and I am near certain that we are all going to live through 2012.

But since 2012 is coming and half the world is OMGZ WE ARE GOING TO DIEZ, I wanted to broach a pretty personal subject for me. I know that this is my first article, but I am going to talk about death. This is the part where the true fans stay or go right. Death is something, as much as we do not want it to be, inevitable. There is (for now) no good way via Science or anything else to skip death with, but in this writers’ opinion, and belief, it is not the “End” (I capitalized the E for effect). I am a member of the Mormon church, so I have an interesting view on death. See, I believe that Death is merely the next part of the plan. I believe that we came here to earth to live, get a life experience and eventually die.

That is the “doctrine” of my church. Its what I believe, and how I feel about it. I do not think that death is something to be afraid of or to not talk about. I have been to a couple of funerals lately and it has made me think. In the video game world, death is never a setback. Sure you may lose some experience points, or be forced to go back to a save point that sucks, but you can always keep playing. People for the most part do not live this way (I say for the most part because, we all know or know of an adrenaline junkie or two), because they are afraid of death. To go to the great <insert over used reference to heaven here> in the sky. It’s scary to not know what awaits us and what is there when we die. Is it heaven? Is it hell? Or is it nothing, simply no longer existing.

Death for me is not scary. Death is simple, I suppose. Sure there is the chance of pain and weakness leading up to death, but the whole dying part is not something I fear. What I fear more is the thought that I would stop existing. Trying to imagine all of the good things (and bad I suppose) I have done and all of the friends I have made, the people I have loved, and the things I have seen simply disappearing into the black is a horrible thought. I would rather have not existed at all than to cease existing. Living life has been far too worth it to not have it any more. No, I know that everyone is allowed their own opinion, but I will stick to this till I die (har har har). Death is not simply the “End” (there is that E again!).

Anyway, I know that death is something that can be hard for people. I know that sometimes the circumstances that lead up to someone’s death are sometimes very bad. My uncle died of cancer in 2005 and that was probably the worst experience I remember in my life.  He was in pain constantly, and was literally being eaten from the inside out. The funny thing is that he was always a character of strength in my life, so seeing him brought down like that was tough. As hard as it was for me through he always tried to look strong. I remember Christmas 2004, which was the last time we as a family saw him alive, he looked quite well. He was putting on a wonderful… I don’t even know what to call it, facade maybe… and he just looked happy, like he knew what was going to happen but he was OK with it because he would finally get a break. The funeral was a lot easier than I expected it to be looking back. In the months before he died, he got super skinny and well the rest is obvious. I was a pallbearer at the funeral, and the thing I remember most, was how light he seemed. It wasn’t just that there were others helping, we all felt as though there was nothing to it. It was odd, but it was good. I knew that my uncle was finally getting the rest he needed and was doing what he needed to do in the spirit world.

What? You are wondering what this spirit world thing I am talking about is? Well after we die I (and members of the Mormon church) believe that we do not go straight to heaven, but we go to a place called the spirit world. This is not purgatory, its more or less a waiting room for resurrection, which all men will receive, and final judgment. It is a place to relax and wait for the end of the world essentially. Then after that, like I said, all people will be resurrected, thanks to Jesus Christ and the Atonement (thats that thing he did in the garden of Gethsemane taking the sins of the world on his shoulder, so we could all live again).

So yeah. This is not an article about my beliefs totally, so if you want to know more let me know. I am going to go ahead and end this here, because I am sure that anything else I would say would be repetitive. I am open to discussion on the matter though, just let me know VIA the comment system here.  I don’t have a problem talkin’ ’bout belief. I enjoy it actually.

This is Austin Jennings, signing off for the evening!