BY PAM LOBLEY

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

NOW THAT’S FUNNY

Rest in peace? Not anymore. Technology has caught up with the dead and buried, and now you can scan gravestones with your smartphone and learn all kinds of things about the deceased.

Yahoo! News is reporting that several companies have created quick response codes for gravestones, allowing you scan the code with your phone and get access to a website about the deceased person which could include photos, videos and other information, as well as comments from family and friends.

It will also register the dead person to vote, just in time for the election! Just kidding.

This app is so hot people are dying to get it.

It’s not enough that living people are blogging and Facebooking their lives and interests…now the dead are doing it, too. Will the dead start competing for site traffic? Will the popular grave sites (pun intended!) start selling advertising?

Dave Quiring, of Seattle’s Quiring Monuments, feels that this technology brings young people into the fold of the cemetery experience. As he explained in The Seattle Times, “This marriage of technology with history seems a way to make preserving memories more important to people.”

If you want Grandma to be remembered for her sharp wit, or post her favorite recipes and pictures, this app makes that easy. Then when you bring younger children to the grave, they can use their smartphones to remember and honor her. She could even leave a recorded video of herself for the kids to download.

I don’t think my Grandmother would have gone for this. She lived to be 96, and never got comfortable with answering machines. She would wait a long time after the beep, during which I would hear her say to Grandpa, “She’s not there. Did you eat your sandwich yet? I was going to get you a pickle … oh, Pam, dear, it’s Grandma. Called to say hi … Silence … OK. Goodbye.”

Homer Simpson and Darth Vader both have Twitter accounts. If fictional characters can tweet, perhaps the dead can, too. They can offer up all kinds of comments on your life or the latest world events. “I left you the house and you painted it green? It’s an eyesore!”

Evergreen Washelli Cemetery in Seattle is considering putting the codes on the trees or historical monuments of the cemetery, so that visitors could get more out of their trips to the cemetery and learn about the foliage that’s been planted or the dignitaries buried there. I can imagine a time when all the monuments and urns will have codes on them. This could become big business, as companies compete to give you the best post-life website you can possibly imagine. You can airbrush out your fat rear end, delete that irritating ex-husband, and use it to bully your children. “You won’t be in my grave video if you don’t come to my house for Thanksgiving!”

I just started a blog a few weeks ago. Now I guess I’ll have to keep it going. Forever.

Pam Lobley writes the “Now That’s Funny” column. Check out her blog: Better Living Through Chaos! Follow her on twitter @plobley.

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