(no subject)
Survived first week of classes. Doesn't seem like this semester will be too too hard, except for Japanese and language and education, the linguistic anthropology course (which I've found involves science. Ewwie. Science is supposed to stay away from languages and anthropology!). I'm a little bit apprehensive about that class. We shall see.
Kim baked cookies last night with a friend, and we then wandered around the dorm a bit trying to meet people as people aren't very social here. We found that this floor consists of the entirety of the girl's basketball team (egads they're tall)- who each get their own single rooms that are the size of a normal double or even triple (what?). They were nice, but then they ended up having a really crazy party later that night, knocked over the big garbage cans in the hallway, and somehow managed to get broken, crumbled cookies or chips or something all over the carpet throughout the entire floor. ...... They haven't cleaned it up at all; a girl who lived near the garbage cans picked those up. asdfghjkl
Buuut we met some really nice girls up on the 7th floor, and we have agreed to hold dinner parties (because they and Kim love to cook), crepe brunches (Kim and I both brought crepe makers haha), and generally just hang out. So that was fun!
~~~
On a more serious note- this is a really sad article about society's attitude towards men around children, and how terror of child molesters is going overboard. It's one thing to be cautious about strangers in general; it's another thing to... overreact like this. A dad having lunch with his kid, and someone calls a policeman on him? Reading a book to his son with the kid in his lap and a parent freaks out? Older brothers playing with their sisters, and so on.
"Being male, I am guilty until proven innocent."
I can understand the worry- hell, I tend to be paranoid with older men (well, guys in general but I'm not so bad with guys my age now). But I realize it's often unwarranted, and you can be careful without going completely overboard.
It's like the situation with rape a bit, I guess. A guy accused of rape is often instantly looked upon with disgust and hatred, no "innocence until proven guilty" for him. Nevermind the fact it's entirely possibly a girl can just be pissed off at a guy and accuse him of rape, earning the guy a tainted reputation that's incredibly hard to get rid of. Like the Duke lacross players, though I admit I first reacted the same way, until I heard someone getting angry about the "guilty until proven innocent" attitude.
*sigh* Parents need to teach kids to be responsible, and take more responsibility for them to begin with. Teach them to be careful of strangers, but without all this hysteria. With this attitude, kids aren't going to know how to relate to adults at all, and then it's hard to distinguish when someone actually means harm...
It's good for dads to be spending time with their kids, especially when women are tending to be more career-oriented so some dads are spending more time with them. It's good for kids to have a close bond with their dad, but if everytime they go out in public someone freaks out...
Thoughts?
Kim baked cookies last night with a friend, and we then wandered around the dorm a bit trying to meet people as people aren't very social here. We found that this floor consists of the entirety of the girl's basketball team (egads they're tall)- who each get their own single rooms that are the size of a normal double or even triple (what?). They were nice, but then they ended up having a really crazy party later that night, knocked over the big garbage cans in the hallway, and somehow managed to get broken, crumbled cookies or chips or something all over the carpet throughout the entire floor. ...... They haven't cleaned it up at all; a girl who lived near the garbage cans picked those up. asdfghjkl
Buuut we met some really nice girls up on the 7th floor, and we have agreed to hold dinner parties (because they and Kim love to cook), crepe brunches (Kim and I both brought crepe makers haha), and generally just hang out. So that was fun!
~~~
On a more serious note- this is a really sad article about society's attitude towards men around children, and how terror of child molesters is going overboard. It's one thing to be cautious about strangers in general; it's another thing to... overreact like this. A dad having lunch with his kid, and someone calls a policeman on him? Reading a book to his son with the kid in his lap and a parent freaks out? Older brothers playing with their sisters, and so on.
"Being male, I am guilty until proven innocent."
I can understand the worry- hell, I tend to be paranoid with older men (well, guys in general but I'm not so bad with guys my age now). But I realize it's often unwarranted, and you can be careful without going completely overboard.
It's like the situation with rape a bit, I guess. A guy accused of rape is often instantly looked upon with disgust and hatred, no "innocence until proven guilty" for him. Nevermind the fact it's entirely possibly a girl can just be pissed off at a guy and accuse him of rape, earning the guy a tainted reputation that's incredibly hard to get rid of. Like the Duke lacross players, though I admit I first reacted the same way, until I heard someone getting angry about the "guilty until proven innocent" attitude.
*sigh* Parents need to teach kids to be responsible, and take more responsibility for them to begin with. Teach them to be careful of strangers, but without all this hysteria. With this attitude, kids aren't going to know how to relate to adults at all, and then it's hard to distinguish when someone actually means harm...
It's good for dads to be spending time with their kids, especially when women are tending to be more career-oriented so some dads are spending more time with them. It's good for kids to have a close bond with their dad, but if everytime they go out in public someone freaks out...
Thoughts?