I am rated 'E-Z'

Following my admission that I am a discussion-forum stalker (you can read about it here), I am now going to use an idea I got from one such discussion I had stalked. The discussion was about the appropriateness of using foul language in day-to-day communication, be it verbal, written, printed, typed or posted. Or putting it simply 'To cuss, or not to cuss: That was the question' (I love my limited knowledge of Shakespeare!). Different people put forward their opinions and points of view about publicly doing it as compared to doing it behind closed walls, where they thought it was ok and where it was not and how those words and terms are to be taken within the bigger context of what was being said and so on and so forth. As discussions go, this was a fairly normal, ordinary, bland one that it hardly registered in the higher reaches of my brain. So you can be very sure I am not going to go ahead and write something about the topic of that discussion.

What I am going to write about is, however, based on a point raised by one of the many people who had participated in said discussion. Given the fact that some blogs contain bad language and that, by nature of being blogs on the internet, they are easily accessible to an audience for whom that kind of language might be inappropriate, the person suggested that we should all carry a rating on our blogs which would easily make the appropriateness of the blog apparent to potential readers. Amongst that whole crowd of opinions and views, this one stuck out like the clatter of a diesel engine in a group of buzzing electric motors. And I thought I should take that idea up and implement it. So here I am, attempting just that.

The obvious starting point is to come up with a rating system. If there are two things I am known for, they are laziness, a distinct lack of originality and the complete inability to come straight to the point. Since I have this kind of rep to protect, I shall not waste time, effort and what little mental faculties I have to come up with a rating system of my own. Instead I will just adapt the 'G', 'PG', 'PG-13', 'R' and 'NC-17'/'X' rating used by the motion picture industry.

Let us look at what this established rating system stands for:

• 'G' - General audience of all ages. So toddlers, granddad/mom types and everyone in between are allowed.
• 'PG' - Parental Guidance required. Probably because un-guided people might not be able to find their way in. Again toddlers, granddad/mom types and everyone in between are allowed so long as they have their parents to guide them in.
• 'PG-13' - Parental Guidance required for anyone under 13 or acting that age. It's assumed that all the others can find their own way.
• 'R' - I was thinking this stands for Risqué until I was disabused of this notion and told that it stands for Restricted. This is actually a short form for PG-17 because it mandates Parental Guidance for anyone under 17 or acting that age. Like before, all the others can find their own way.
• 'NC-17'/'X' - This says "Don't approach if under 17. Stay away and indulge in something that's cool, hip and happening. This is for those oldies, who are unable to get with the times".

Now all I have to do now is to pick one of those and stick it to this blog and I am done. Easier said than done. As I was going through that list of what the ratings meant, I realized that nowhere have they covered the niche category that my blog belongs to. The closest ratings, in my opinion, would be one of the three Parental Guidance ratings because said parents might be able to guide their kids in and out of my blog and minimize the damage to their still developing brains. But my experience has shown that even some parents tend to lose their own brains when they are here. So I can't really use the PG ratings. Guess I just have to come up with something on my own after all!!

After much original thought, I rate my blog 'E-Z' – Everybody Zzzzzzzz.