Why are Fire Engines Red?

I tried watching a movie last night. 'Bedazzled' actually, it's quite good, all about the battle over a soul between God and the 'Devil'. I was having a great time, even made some popcorn, all was going well, and then wouldn't you know it... my DVD player went on the fritz. So now, I have a house with 3 DVD players, none of which want to cooperate. With a sigh I resigned myself to the next best thing, YouTube. Not quite as good quality, but entertaining nonetheless.

YouTube is an interesting entity. Anyone, from any walk of life, any income bracket, any, well, anything can be a star on YouTube. For a few days anyways. Users simply upload their videos and presto! Instant stardom with a click of the mouse. In some ways this is a good thing, many people have had wonderful opportunities presented them as a cause of using this medium for creative outlet. And on the flip side, it opens people up to whatever sordid things can be dredged up from the recesses of the human psyche. There is truly some disturbing things on the site. And it got me thinking about the internet on a whole. Anything you want to know, or in some cases don't want to, are their for your viewing pleasure. In this day and age, in the right places, nothing is taboo. And I would suppose in a roundabout way that also means that nothing is sacred. Don't get me wrong, I love the internet. (or the interwebs as I affectionately refer to it as) There's nothing more stupendous then when you desperately need to know who the drummer is for Trivium, you type a few words into the Google search engine, and poof! there it is. All you could ever want to know and more. There are sites that will not only tell you his name, but his birth date, favourite food, pant size, zodiac sign and the name of his childhood crush.

And that's what I'm really getting at here. There is such a thing as too much information. There are many things that we simply don't need to know. The internet has removed all personal boundaries, and our private lives are now up for grabs, and I don't just mean with so-called 'famous' people. I mean with everyone. Recently pissed off your ex? Well those pictures you took last year are now all over Flickr. Had a party last weekend? Well you can bet that there are now pictures of you doing not so professional things on Facebook for your bosses perusal. All in all, our private lives no longer exist. Sad is it not? Even might make you a little paranoid. Or at least get you thinking. If this is how internet culture has progressed in just a few short years, I fear for what it will be like in the next 10, 5 or even 1 year. For myself, I try to ensure there is only information that I have knowingly placed there, or allowed to be placed there, on this information overload phenomenon we called the world wide web.

Oh and as to the title? Well seeing as you made it this far I guess I'll tell you.

Because they've got 8 wheels and 4 people on them, 8 + 4 = 12, There are 12 inches in a foot, One foot is a ruler, There was a ruler named Queen Elizabeth, A ship named Queen Elizabeth sails the seas, In the seas are fish, On the fish are fins, The Fins fought the Russians, And Russians are red.

And that's why fire engines are red. Because they're always rushin'

<3