Squeak

My Life According to Green Day

2009-08-05T13:00:00.002-04:00

I know that I haven't posted in a while, but I saw this on Material Maidel and I couldn't resist:

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions.
Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "my life according to (artist' name)"

Pick your Artist:
Green Day

Are you a male or female:
Disappearing Boy

Describe yourself:
Nice Guys Finish Last

How do you feel:
Having a Blast

Describe where you currently live:
Strangeland

If you could go anywhere, where would you go?:
2,000 Light Years Away

Your favorite form of transportation:
Walking Alone

Your best friend?
She's A Rebel

You and your friends are:
Jaded

What's the weather like:
Dry Ice

Favorite time of day:
All the Time

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Longview

What is life to you:
Welcome To Paradise

Your relationship:
Extraordinary Girl

Your fear:
409 in Your Coffee Maker

What is the best advice you have to give:
Hold On

Thought for the Day:
Wake Me Up When September Ends

How I would like to die:
At the Library

My soul's present condition:
No One Knows

My motto:
See The Light

Vital news for the frum community

2009-03-09T12:18:00.002-04:00

Anyone have an idea why VIN has posted this story about NAMBLA (possibly the funniest organization around)?

Teach your kids DERECH ERETZ!!!

2009-03-03T12:08:00.004-05:00

This post is a response to two posts I read recently, one by Honestly Frum and one by Rabbi Horowitz.

I think that the most abused idea in Judaism today is the concept of "talmud torah k'neged kulam".

The yeshivish world focuses solely on learning and becoming a talmud chacham. They don't focus at all on working on yourself to have better middos. I guess that the rationale is that through learning they will become better people.

The problem is that if you don't work on your middos, you aren't even an acceptable vessel to receive the Torah. The torah won't change you into a better person, rather your bad middos will pervert the Torah you learn. Just like someone who learns without washing netilas yadayim in the morning, the torah that is learned is worthless.

Think of the Torah as the most pure water in the world, and the person learning the Torah as a cup. A person witout good middos is like a vile, dirty cup. Any water that is poured into it will be sullied by the nastiness of the cup.

Teach your kids to work on their middos.

When am I going to get my bailout??

2009-02-27T09:16:00.001-05:00

www.toothpastefordinner.com

Wow, it's been a month!

2009-02-24T11:56:00.005-05:00

Thank God I've been very busy at work so I haven't updated this blog in over a month!

I've seen a few things worth commenting on but I haven't had the time or energy to formulate entire posts about them. Here are two posts that I read today on Frum Satire and Honestly Frum:

1. Frum Satire's post about facebook being banned: This is what our society has become. It's not about teaching our children the core beliefs of our religion and allowing them to live their lives, it's about banning everything that has any aspect to it that may be bad.

2. Honestly Frum's post about the Hamodia's website: This is why I think that the concept of Daas Torah is dead. Everyone has a reason that a certain psak or ban shouldn't apply to them. That's why the whole wedding guidelines thing didn't work. The same rabbis who signed on the guidelines went to weddings that were sickeningly extravagant (they were allowed to because of "circumstances beyond the norm". When you think of it, isn't everyone's circumstances beyond the norm in their own minds?).

I'm totally going to be featured on this website

2009-01-23T09:35:00.001-05:00

I fall asleep on the subway every night.

The myth of Icarus

2009-01-18T08:59:00.002-05:00

I heard a song by Thrice called "The Melting Point of Wax". It tells the tale of Icarus and Daedalus from Icarus' point of view.

For those who don't know the story, Icarus and his father Daedalus were imprisoned on an island. Daedalus was very handy and he fashioned wings out of feathers and wax, and the two of them attempted to fly off the island. Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun but curiosity got the best of him and he flew higher and higher until the wax in his wings melted and he fell to the sea and drowned. It is usually told as a cautionary tale to children to be careful to follow instructions.

The Thrice song however takes a different approach to the story portraying Icarus as rebellious, and that he deliberately flew close to the sun, without any care for the consequences.

This brings me to my point. I wonder what kind of controlling father Daedalus must have been if Icarus felt that he had to defy his warning to see for himself. I realized that there is a similar issue in many frum homes. Parents who shelter their children from everything in the outside world, telling them that everything is assur, and when those children get old enough to realize that they've been lied to, they feel that they can't believe anything that they were taught, and they end up trying everything for themselves, even things that will do some serious damage to themselves (physically or emotionally).

It amazes me that people these days still try to absolutely shelter their children from the world around them. I think that in the 21st century its virtually impossible for someone to lead their entire life without ever experiencing contact with the outside world and the other views, beliefs, and religions that are in the world. I think that by sheltering your children to an absolute degree you are making certain that they will be woefully unprepared for the inevitable day that they experience something outside of their world and they realize that they've been lied to. At that point they are able to make their own decisions about what is wrong and right, they will want to rebel against everything that their overbearing parents told them, even if it is to their own detriment.

Like Thrice says in the song: "How will I know limits from lies if I never try?".

What I take from the song/story:
Don't lie to your kids. Don't tell them that things are assur if they're not assur. It will eventually backfire. Although telling the truth is much harder, your kids wil be better people in the end.

This is priceless

2009-01-08T12:28:00.001-05:00

How much porn can you get for $5 BILLION?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28545081/

Facebook dilemma

2008-12-16T07:46:00.002-05:00

There are some people that you don't want to be friends with on Facebook, but you have to accept their requests, or you'll risk insulting them.

I really don't want to have my mother-in-law as a friend, but I had no choice but to accept.

Also, I have about 50 first cousins, and a few of them are young and impressionable. I sort of have to accept their friend requests or insult them.

A third category is coworkers. I HATE some of the people who I work with, but I had to accept their friend invitations.

Yesterday, a girl in my office made her status: "_____ wishes she could fast forward the day". About 5 minutes later her boss commented on her post: "I had to hit pause. We got work to do!". I would be pretty pissed if that happened to me.

So now I have a slew of relatives and acquaintances who I'd rather not be friends with as friends on Facebook. That means that I can't write a status update: "Squeak is having a shitty day". I have to write "crappy" or maybe even "lousy". It just doesn't convey the absolute shittiness of my day.

Are you friends with anyone who you didn't want to be friends with?

I don't slag no one I don't even judge

2008-12-05T08:03:00.003-05:00

"And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he forever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the mountain eagle is still higher than the other birds upon the plain, even though they soar."
- Herman Melville, Moby Dick [1851]

I always have a hard time when I see someone Jewish doing something "wrong". I'm so quick to judge even though I know that I shouldn't. This is especially true when I see chassidim doing things that are "wrong". Even though I may be doing the same thing, like going to a movie, or a bar/club/concert/etc., I automatically look down on them as if they should be held to a higher standard.

I automatically assume that they are scummy fakers as opposed to looking at them as good people just looking for a little entertainment. Because of the sensational stories I hear, I tend to forget that most chassidim are warm, generous, and genuinely good people. I should really assume that if I see them at a theater, that is the worst thing that they are doing.

Maybe it's like Melville said, if you're really a good person, even at your worst you're still better than most bad people at their best.

Mama's gonna check out all your girl friends for you, Mama won't let anyone dirty get through

2008-11-24T08:55:00.002-05:00

My wife has a few friends in their late 20's that are still not married. Whenever she gets an idea for a good match she tries to set them up. Last week she tried to set someone up with a friend of mine who is in his late 20's too. She gave my friend some references to call, including another friend of hers who just got married a few weeks ago.

A few days later my wife gets a call from the friend that she gave as a reference. The friend said "I can't believe that you set up ______ with such a crazy guy."

Here's what happened: My friend didn't make the call, his father did. And, his father was asking INSANE questions, like: "Is her hair smooth and thin, or more full and flowing?"

Are people really that crazy out there? Asking about the TEXTURE OF A GIRLS HAIR?!?!?

The second issue that I have with this story is that this friend of mine is in his late 20's, and he runs a successful business. Why is his father making these calls for him? I always wondered why he's still single. Now I know. He should grow a pair and make the calls himself. He'd get married much quicker.

Has anyone else been asked crazy shiduch questions?

You don't want to change the world like you say, You're in it for yourself, no one else

2008-11-20T09:02:00.005-05:00

I came across this article the other day (http://gothamist.com/2008/11/14/mccain_scores_landslide_in_hasidic.php) about how McCain won the Chassishe vote in Williamsburg by a landslide.

I'm pretty sure that most of the Chassidim in W-Burg weren't doing exhaustive research so that they can make an informed decision (I know that I'm stereotyping, but I'm probably right for the most part). Their Rabbi probably told them to vote McCain, so they did. I know this was the case in many yeshivishe circles.

This leads me to my question: What is "daas torah" and who has it?

People in the yeshivishe world will follow anything that their rav tells them because he has "daas torah". That somehow he is qualified to make decisions for his congregation (that are unrelated to torah study) based on the fact that he is a big talmid chacham. Isn't it insanely arrogant for any person to claim that they know everything about everything?

Is "daas torah" a euphemism for some sort of watered-down ruach hakodesh? If so, how could Obama win if all these Rabbis said that we should vote for McCain?

I feel that so many Rabbis use this as a tool to further their own agendas. Like Rabbis who say "That bomb/accident/other tragedy happened because of tznius/lashon hara/etc.". How can someone state conclusively that the reason for some tragedy that happened is because of some specific sin. Did God come and tell you that? Or is it a convenient way to prey on people's emotions to further an agenda that you've been pushing (albeit an altruistic agenda in most cases).

It's just that people have to realize that Rabbis are human too. Some are bad, most are good.

All I want is the truth.
----------------------------------------
"I'll take the truth at any cost"
Paramore - "We Are Broken"

I sit here clutching useless lists...I know that there's a point I've missed

2008-11-14T08:11:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite things is finding new music. I love categorizing things, so let me break down the different ways that I find new music:
1. Coming across a band I never heard of online, or through a friend.
2. Finally listening to music by a band that I've heard of for years, but I never felt the need to try out, and now that I've finally relented I realize that I LOVE their music
3. Bands that have one or two songs that you know well, but you never heard anything else from them, and when you finally get your hands on the full album, you realize that they have a bunch of great songs

My top discoveries over the past year and a half are:
1. Paramore - "Riot": I never heard of Paramore before this year, and I saw on some music blog that they are great so I downloaded the album. I wasn't disappointed. Great stuff. I'd describe it as a less-gloomy Evanescence.

2. Descendents - "Cool to Be You": I never heard of the Descendents before, but heard of them through friends. Loved the music. I was surprised that I never heard of them before bec theyve been around for so long. Favortie song: "'Merican". Awesome workout song. I love the line:
"i'm proud and ashamed
every fourth of july
you've got to know the truth
before you say that you've got pride"
Listen to them if you like Green Day or The Offspring.

3. Dashboard Confessional - "The Places You Have Come to Fear The Most": I've heard of Dashboard Confessional before, but I never heard any of their music. This album is great. It has a very raw feeling with great lyrics.

I can keep going, but I don't want this post to be 2 pages long:)

To be continued......

I love to hear what obscure music other people listen to. What are your hidden gems?

Welcome to the machine

2008-11-13T08:08:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone. I've been reading a lot of the frum blogs recently, and I decided that I too need somewhere to vent my frustrations.

Obviously Squeak isn't my real name, but like most frum bloggers I would like to remain anonymous (for now at least).

I'm a frum guy in my late 20's. I'm married with two kids. I grew up in the NY area in a very yeshivish family, and I went to extremely frummy schools. Like so many others in the yeshiva world, I'm fed up with the close-mindedness that is so prevalent in our society.

However, there are already more than enough blogs out there with ex-yeshiva guys who are pissed off at the world. I'm actually a very happy person and I would like to keep this blog more on the positive side.

I love music. All kinds of music. I'm mostly into alternative rock (which has kind of morphed into emo somehow). But I also love classic rock, rap, and occasionally, a pop song or two.

I'd like to use this blog to share my taste in music and my warped outlook on the world.