Respect

I remember having a long conversation that bordered on being an argument with somebody, I think Synfony, about respect. I don't think I really explained it very well, honestly. I was saying that I don't automatically respect everyone I meet. That my respect has to be earned first, so most people don't have my respect at all.

Respect can mean a number of different things, though. To me it tends to me something like honor and high regard. Somebody I respect is somebody who I think of as better than myself. Somebody who has qualities that I admire and aspire to. Obviously I cannot give this form of repect to a person that I do not know. I don't know what qualities they have, so I don't know if they have any to admire.

I think the problem I had in that argument is that "respect" can also mean the simple right to be treated with basic human dignity.

That first a person has to earn. The second everybody is entitled to until they lose it. Of course some people do lose it, and see two posts down for what happens then. *grin*

This 3 am ramble was brought to you by Violent Acres.

The biggest prank ever

The media never reported on it. I heard a rumor about it on the net before it happened, and assumed it had failed, because I never heard the screaming news stories that ought to have resulted from success.

But it seems that it didn't fail.

It went off without a hitch.

Why didn't I hear? Why didn't you? Why does nobody know what happened even though the results were broadcast on national television? Well... you'll have to read about it and decide for yourself.

More ranty articles

I wish I could take this article and pour it directly into fishy's brain. Actually, it would in a certain sense be much more satisfying to instead ram it down his throat, but that would probably be a bit much.

Anyhow, this is good stuff. I don't agree 100% with everything this gal writes, but a lot of the time it's very much in line with my own thoughts and experiences, and when it's not it's at least interesting stuff to think about. And she says a few things rather better than I do. And occasionally there are moments when I go "aieee, get out of my mind!" because her rants are rather eerily like my rants. Hrm. I could actually make some kind of career out of ranting, if I was just a little better at it. Who knew?

P.S. Totally unrelated, but my set puzzle record is now 39 seconds. Ha!

More thoughts!

I'm probably going to be posting a lot until I finish the Violent Acres archives, because there's a lot to read about in there, and a lot to think about too. Take this article for example.

Basically, it says that we complain a lot, but most of us don't actually do anything. We say we're trapped or stuck or can't change it. Gas prices are high, nothing we can do but grumble, we can't change the price. Well, no we can't, but we can walk. Take the bus. Carpool. We can do something.

A little more than a year ago I was having a nervous breakdown. I was in college, one semester away from finally getting a degree after ten years of on again off again schooling. I was almost done. I needed that degree, right? All that money and effort would be wasted if I didn't have the degree. And to get the degree I had to not transfer schools again, and I had to work a job so I could pay tuition, and I had to live with my parents so I could afford to eat, and I was trapped with classes, a job, the pressure from my family to conform, and trying to do the things I wanted and loved to do, like make costumes, meant I had to take time I didn't really have, and just added to the stress.

I was stuck, right? I needed the job, I needed the degree, so I needed to stay with my parents, and the only thing I could give up was the free time stuff I loved. Right?

Well, no. I quit the job. Then I quit school, and then I moved to Oregon, knowing exactly four people in the entire state, three of them JJ and his parents, the other halfway across it anyhow.

And I have never been happier in my life than I am now.

So if you think you're trapped in an intolerable situation, you might want to re-think it. Do you really have no choice? Or have you just chosen to stay where you are? If the misery now is worth the payoff, then by all means stay where you're at, of course. I'm not saying everybody who hates school should quit it, or that everybody who doesn't like their job should quit. But don't say you have no choice. You do have a choice. You just made the decision that the misery of the hated job was worth the paycheck you get, that's all. You decided you'd rather pay $3.00 a gallon for gas than walk. That doesn't mean you didn't have options.