2610: Something To Say
I seem to have double-click finger, as no matter how I try to single-click, it often double-clicks when I don't want it to do it [even with the pen tablet!]. It's rather obnoxious, considering how they're two different functions entirely.
Especially since Char opted to see Journeyman rather than join his folks for a viewing of The Golden Compass, I decided I had gone out enough for tonight and will more likely wait to be assaulted with the DVD. Everyone who's seen it comments that the editing is crap, and as it doesn't finish in the first movie, it's prolly kind of like watching 24 and would just have me annoyed waiting for the other two to finish production. That's my decision, and I'm sticking to it.
I remembered three parties that might be a little put off for not getting cards, so I'll [grudgingly] get some more =p and send them out tomorrow. I'm trying to think of a reason to go somewhere other than the three stores I've visited in the last odd days, but I can't think of many. My holiday shopping's done, galdamnit!
On the plus side, it looks like I'll be finishing PQ soon, to get that out of my hair! XB [Also on the plus side, I need to get some exercise... maybe I'll make myself get some shots of the lake at last since I have the time. GRRR]What always happens at the end of a dry spell?
[no, not "the letter L" you literalists, something else]
Here's a social conundrum:
Back in the days when the world was huge and communications were by Pony Express at fastest, people were pressured to conform and put their antisocial quirks aside in the name of fitting in. Now, with Teh Interneats!!¡1, the world is smaller, and all those antisocial people with antisocial awkwardnesses can find each other and say, hey, we're not alone in our inabilities to "fit in"! So the antisocials can get together and form an accepting, unsocial society that celebrates--rather than stigmatizes--the quirks that greater society shuns.
Of course, the problem with unsocial societies is they can grow to treat their eccentricities as a right rather than something that isn't necessarily bad but certainly not the norm. It's harmless when it's something minor, but some quirks are outright offensive, and these unsocials don't understand that these more offensive quirks have no place in the greater society to the point where it's a disservice to everyone to so flatly ignore the consequences of their choices of lifestyle.
Example: The unwashed masses. It's not a fault to not be 100% free of bacteria and the like, since that's impossible, but certainly washing on a regular basis is a must for anyone who plans to go out in public, much less host anyone at home. It's not just an issue of pleasantness, it's a health issue as well, yet there are unsocials who think it's all a big scare and fail to realize it just serves as erecting a wall between themselves and the rest of the world.
If that's their choice, then that's their choice, but it's naïve to believe the problem is with greater society for not accepting their ways, rather than recognizing it as their personal beliefs that conflict with greater society and being able to shelve the more trivial of differences in the name of getting along.
Example, too: Parents who refuse to accept responsibility for their own children. [Not that I believe there are societies centered around this specifically, but it's more the mindset involved: "It's not my fault, and as long as I can rally people together who believe I'm not the one in the wrong, I'll be in the right!" =p BOO]
Perhaps it's all anecdotal evidence, or a product of my specific viewpoint in the world, but having walked a rather roundabout course through life, I have a pretty good understanding of what being a social outcast is like [though, not an extreme understanding], so the escape path is more clear to me. Of course, I'm still more likely to have only a few friends, especially close ones with whom I can feel I can confide. I don't believe in greater numbers as much as greater quality of time spent, and I just can't do the cocktail party or clubbing kind of crowd scene.
On that note, I find--through my advice columns--that there are possibly hundreds of thousands or millions of bored housewives just like me--or, something like me--who have by what manner or other lost their closest girlfriends and have, at best, their husbands as their best and only friends. Less so, there are prolly bored househusbands[...?] with only their wives as their friends, but it seems like men in general are more likely to keep their friends through the years... for longer, at least. At least for me, I feel awkward trying to maintain long-distance relationships [something that took a long time to learn], because it costs so much more in time and money for less result. With local friends, Chars and I can say, "Hey, let's do PR at our place this weekend," and those who can come will have a good time. Online, it's all... text and apps.
Anyone who's ever been lonely and sought companionship through text should know that, after a while, words on a monitor are a pitiable substitute for an actual flesh-and-blood person... which goes back to my diatribe on unsocials. It's not a good idea to self-isolate. It's not a good idea to replace actual people with representations of people on a screen [soaps, WoW, etc.]. There is going to be a point where isolation multiplies the antisocial quirks in a person and make the effort to re-enter society all the tougher, like trying to merge onto a highway after coming to a stop: it just makes the distance to have to close greater than it was before.
I say this as a partial apology for maybe accidentally pushing people away over time, but a lot of that was I didn't know who I was. I still don't completely know, but I know if I had stayed close with everyone I've met over the years, I'd be pretty overwhelmed right now and would have to start my cards for next year, like, right now to get them all done =p and that's a chore!
But it's a two-way street, and if it's been a chore to remain friends with me, then I can't blame y'all for feeling the same way.
Just getting this out at last, no particular prompting.
Especially since Char opted to see Journeyman rather than join his folks for a viewing of The Golden Compass, I decided I had gone out enough for tonight and will more likely wait to be assaulted with the DVD. Everyone who's seen it comments that the editing is crap, and as it doesn't finish in the first movie, it's prolly kind of like watching 24 and would just have me annoyed waiting for the other two to finish production. That's my decision, and I'm sticking to it.
I remembered three parties that might be a little put off for not getting cards, so I'll [grudgingly] get some more =p and send them out tomorrow. I'm trying to think of a reason to go somewhere other than the three stores I've visited in the last odd days, but I can't think of many. My holiday shopping's done, galdamnit!
On the plus side, it looks like I'll be finishing PQ soon, to get that out of my hair! XB [Also on the plus side, I need to get some exercise... maybe I'll make myself get some shots of the lake at last since I have the time. GRRR]What always happens at the end of a dry spell?
[no, not "the letter L" you literalists, something else]
Here's a social conundrum:
Back in the days when the world was huge and communications were by Pony Express at fastest, people were pressured to conform and put their antisocial quirks aside in the name of fitting in. Now, with Teh Interneats!!¡1, the world is smaller, and all those antisocial people with antisocial awkwardnesses can find each other and say, hey, we're not alone in our inabilities to "fit in"! So the antisocials can get together and form an accepting, unsocial society that celebrates--rather than stigmatizes--the quirks that greater society shuns.
Of course, the problem with unsocial societies is they can grow to treat their eccentricities as a right rather than something that isn't necessarily bad but certainly not the norm. It's harmless when it's something minor, but some quirks are outright offensive, and these unsocials don't understand that these more offensive quirks have no place in the greater society to the point where it's a disservice to everyone to so flatly ignore the consequences of their choices of lifestyle.
Example: The unwashed masses. It's not a fault to not be 100% free of bacteria and the like, since that's impossible, but certainly washing on a regular basis is a must for anyone who plans to go out in public, much less host anyone at home. It's not just an issue of pleasantness, it's a health issue as well, yet there are unsocials who think it's all a big scare and fail to realize it just serves as erecting a wall between themselves and the rest of the world.
If that's their choice, then that's their choice, but it's naïve to believe the problem is with greater society for not accepting their ways, rather than recognizing it as their personal beliefs that conflict with greater society and being able to shelve the more trivial of differences in the name of getting along.
Example, too: Parents who refuse to accept responsibility for their own children. [Not that I believe there are societies centered around this specifically, but it's more the mindset involved: "It's not my fault, and as long as I can rally people together who believe I'm not the one in the wrong, I'll be in the right!" =p BOO]
Perhaps it's all anecdotal evidence, or a product of my specific viewpoint in the world, but having walked a rather roundabout course through life, I have a pretty good understanding of what being a social outcast is like [though, not an extreme understanding], so the escape path is more clear to me. Of course, I'm still more likely to have only a few friends, especially close ones with whom I can feel I can confide. I don't believe in greater numbers as much as greater quality of time spent, and I just can't do the cocktail party or clubbing kind of crowd scene.
On that note, I find--through my advice columns--that there are possibly hundreds of thousands or millions of bored housewives just like me--or, something like me--who have by what manner or other lost their closest girlfriends and have, at best, their husbands as their best and only friends. Less so, there are prolly bored househusbands[...?] with only their wives as their friends, but it seems like men in general are more likely to keep their friends through the years... for longer, at least. At least for me, I feel awkward trying to maintain long-distance relationships [something that took a long time to learn], because it costs so much more in time and money for less result. With local friends, Chars and I can say, "Hey, let's do PR at our place this weekend," and those who can come will have a good time. Online, it's all... text and apps.
Anyone who's ever been lonely and sought companionship through text should know that, after a while, words on a monitor are a pitiable substitute for an actual flesh-and-blood person... which goes back to my diatribe on unsocials. It's not a good idea to self-isolate. It's not a good idea to replace actual people with representations of people on a screen [soaps, WoW, etc.]. There is going to be a point where isolation multiplies the antisocial quirks in a person and make the effort to re-enter society all the tougher, like trying to merge onto a highway after coming to a stop: it just makes the distance to have to close greater than it was before.
I say this as a partial apology for maybe accidentally pushing people away over time, but a lot of that was I didn't know who I was. I still don't completely know, but I know if I had stayed close with everyone I've met over the years, I'd be pretty overwhelmed right now and would have to start my cards for next year, like, right now to get them all done =p and that's a chore!
But it's a two-way street, and if it's been a chore to remain friends with me, then I can't blame y'all for feeling the same way.
Just getting this out at last, no particular prompting.