Customer Service, a Thing of the Past

This week, one of the funniest and at the same time most disturbing stories went viral. This is the short version of the story: N-Control is a company that creates gaming accessories, specifically an add-on for hand controls to increase the accuracy in games. The accessory itself has gotten a lot of attention in the gaming media and it had gotten a lot of preorders from anticipating gamers. One customer had preordered one product for himself, was charged for it, never received it on the date promised, and never got any notice about why or when it was going to arrive. He contacted the company via their costumer relations email address and what played out from that point is nothing less that astonishing. Paul Christoforo, a man who is the president of his own PR company called Ocean Marketing answered all the emails himself. The problem was that he was being incredibly rude, cursing, calling the costumer names, and just being as unprofessional as one person could be. He even threatened to take his order himself and sell it on Ebay. After trying in vain to go above Christoforo’s head, he decided to forward the email conversation to one of the biggest gaming website; Penny Arcade. One of the main people behind the site chimed into the conversation, and Christoforo continued to be abrasive, abusive, and simply rude. Meanwhile Penny Arcade published the whole email conversation on their website for millions of people to see, and the internet immediately fought back. During the course of two days Christoforo’s career was ruined, his inbox flooded, his phone number, address, wife’s name, criminal record, and steroid use were outed. He was ruined, and rightfully so.

READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE

This whole debacle reminded me of my own experience with incredibly bad customer service.

A few years back my partner and I bought a Polaroid TV during black Friday. The TV was great… for a few months, but then the problems started. The TV started to turn off by itself, and after a while stopped working all together. We called Polaroid and after a lot of fighting we had a technician come out to fix it. The problem was that when he fixed it he somehow screwed up the screen so that it was all blurry. Seeing how much trouble we had getting to the point of having a major problem fixed, we decided not to go any further with the screen problem. We lived with it for a few months, until the TV broke down in the same way again. It just wouldn’t turn on. At this point we were naturally quite frustrated that we had to deal with these people once again. After many phone calls and frustrating interactions Polaroid agreed to letting us send the TV to them and have it repaired. The problem was that we had to find a box big enough to fit the TV in ourselves, they would not send us one, or pay for one. We reluctantly did this and paid about $20 for the type of box we needed and sent the TV to them.

A few weeks passed and we never got the TV back, nor heard anything from them, so we started calling customer service time and time again to try and get an update. At this point Polaroid had just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and it was almost impossible to get someone on the phone. The few times we did get a hold of someone they had no answers about our TV, and could not authorize a refund. I went to Walmart where we bought the TV to try and get a refund and they pretty much laughed in my face. We finally got a number to one of the customer relations supervisors and she was the person we had contact with from that point on. The problem was that she had no answers either, and after about three phone calls , and a few voice mail messages to her, she informed us that if we did not stop calling she would file harassment charges on us. Funny, a customer representative filing a harassment charge on a customer that has been robbed on their product by the very company she represents. At this point we felt like we were never going to see the TV again nor receive a refund so we did the only thing we could do: we went to the press. I contacted our local news station and they were very interested in this story and decided to help us out. They contacted Polaroid directly to get an answer and when this was done we received a check in the mail within the matter of days, including the $20 we put down on a box to send the TV to them.

It is such a similar story to the whole Christoforo debacle simply because as soon as he got caught and outed to the public his whole tone changed. Apparently it’s ok to treat customers like shit as long as nobody else knows about it, but as soon as the public finds out these companies are apologetic and want to do the right thing. It’s disgusting and shows the incredible decline in customer service quality that so many companies show these days. These are two extreme examples, yes, but how many times have you been put on the phone with someone that barely speaks English? Or have no idea whatsoever what they are talking about? Or are just plain rude? It is time for all of us to out these people and show every company that it is not ok to treat their customers this way without any type of repercussion.

Rick Perry Confuses Me…

So, Rick Perry has a new ad out in which he is extremely offensive to both the gay community and the military. What makes his ad even more reprehensible is that his staff managed to disable the comments section on youtube so that no one can voice their opinions about the ad. Luckily his staff forgot to disable the ratings functionality and with over 300,000 dislikes (compared to the ~8,000 likes), the public’s opinion on this ad is pretty clear. What confuses me about Rick Perry though is that while I feel like going to his house with the sole purpose of spitting in his face, I would most likely end up doing much dirtier things to his face as well.

Because, irregardless of his political views, Rick Perry is fucking hot to me. I’m a gay man and while I am merely 25 years old I am only attracted to men well above 40. Most people immediately make the assumption that it has something to do with money, believe me it does not. I just don’t find younger guys attractive at all. I like my men to be more mature, masculine, and preferably gray haired. It’s just my preference, and unfortunately Rick Perry fits that description to a T. I also have a thing for suits which only further increases my attraction to him. It’s like an internal battle between my big brain and my smaller brain. Luckily my big brain wins out because as excited as my penis gets whenever I see a picture of him, the minute he opens his mouth the excitement turns into anger. I guess there is such a thing as aggressive sex, but I generally prefer to be on the subordinate end on the aggression (TMI I know).

Anyway… To sum up: while I feel like punching the guy in the mouth, I also feel like putting my penis in there. I’m so confused…

Ps. In case you haven’t seen the ad, this is not it, but it’s funny:
 

The Fascist State of America

Put your tiny foil hats on for a bit, I just need to get something out. Recent events have truly made me think that this country is actually going towards a totalitarian fascist state. I know it’s a cliche by now, but sometimes it really feels as if I’m living in a Orwell novel. Let’s start with the most obvious thing that happened recently, the crackdowns on the Occupy Wall Street camps around the country.

The crackdowns have taken place all over the country, and they have all had a very similar pattern. They all happened at night, with no previous warning or demand for protesters to leave, and they all happened by force. On top of that there have been reports that the Department of Homeland Security have participated in a meeting with 18 mayors from all around the country to discuss how to suppress the protesters. Unless it’s not clear, that is against federal law. Going a little deeper and looking at specific events it’s pretty clear that police did everything in their power to suppress the protesters, most likely not by their own will or thought, but by orders from their superiors. Pepper spraying non-violent defenseless people that, sure, were occupying a space, but did not show any signs of force whatsoever. In fact one of the biggest mantras of these protesters is peace, not force. Or the use of tear gas to clear people out, some that hit people and severely injure them. I know that some of you will shake your head and say that these people had it coming, and that they are just lazy bums that wants a hand out, and all I have to say to you at this point is open your eyes. It’s very clear what the OWS movement is after by now, it’s not about getting a handout or the inability to get a job, it’s about three very specific things. 1) To hold the banks responsible for their very large part in the economic crash. 2) To minimize the growing inequality gap that exists in the U.S. (i.e. save the middle class from vanishing). 3) Get the money out of politics. This mainly refers to the fact that corporations can now donate as much money as they like to any candidate they want, and in effect buy a candidate. Money apparently rules everything, so with enough money, big corporations can buy themselves any type of freedom they like to have. Which gets me to another point. How is it that it’s ok for people to camp out in public waiting for stores to open for black Friday, or to go and see the new Twilight movie, or a Justin Bieber concert, but not ok for people to camp out in protest of the wrongs that is going on in this country? Well, the answer is very simple to me, even if the answer is truly fucked up: Capitalism. The occupiers aren’t camping out to buy anything like the other groups of people are. It’s clear what this country is going towards, and it’s not the rights of the people, but the rights of the corporations, so of course every effort to suppress a movement that is against that will be taken.

But enough about the OWS situation, there is enough information about that for anyone to find, and if you don’t want to find it then keep your eyes closed and forever be a sheep. There is something else that I really want to talk about and that is something that happened this past weekend. It’s not really a big deal, that is, unless it wouldn’t have become such a big deal. A girl tweeted (to her staggering 65 Twitter followers) that she said mean things to the governor of Kansas in person. See, not a big deal right? It’s what happened next that is the big deal. Somehow someone in the governor’s office sensed some fowl words being said about her boss, and decided to bring it to the girl’s boss’ (i.e. her high school principal’s) attention. The principal called the girl into his office and demanded that she wrote the governor an apology letter and told her that she had put the whole school and the state to shame by tweeting what she did. Really? First of all, she is an 18 year old girl tweeting to 65 of her twitter friends… no one cares. Second of all, she has the right to say whatever the fuck she wants about whoever the fuck she wants. What’s funny to me is that the person in the governor’s office that contacted the principal has as her main job to monitor negative comments that are being said about the governor on social media sites. It’s like some type of gestapo lap dog sniffing out teenagers who disagrees with the governor’s policies. Well Ms. Lapdog, sniff out this: GOVERNOR SAM BROWNBACK IS A FUCKING ASSHOLE AND SHOULD NOT BE IN OFFICE. Are you gonna call my mommy on me? Stupid bitch… Sorry, back to the point. The fact that a governor has someone that not only monitors social media in order to find negative comments about him, but also goes to such an extent as to pretty much intimidate anyone that expresses their views to retract and apologize is just first hand fascism. I guess Kansas is the new Sicily…

Ok, pull down your foil hats even further now because here comes the big one. Within a minimum of 20 years there will be devices out there that can read our minds. This is not a joke, nor is it a crazy conspiracy theory, it’s fact. If you don’t believe me just click on this link: THIS ONE, RIGHT HERE!!! Sure, it does not say anything about any projection of true mind reading being finalized within any specific time frame, but just think about it. If today’s technology is so good that it can recreate images a person is looking at using only readings of that said person’s brain activity, it’s 99.999999% certain that within 20 years the technique will be perfected. Why do I bring this up? Well, in 20 years you won’t have anyone scanning the social media web for ‘disloyal’ teens, you will be scanning buildings for disloyal thoughts. And anyone with those thoughts better watch out, or your boss will call you into his office…

If you take away some very fundamental rights, rights that America and most of the developed countries, are based upon such as the right to protest, the right to free speech, and in the future, the right to free thought… then what is left is a fascist state almost identical to the one George Orwell predicted would come true in 1984, just a couple of decades late. I could go on and on about other things that show big signs toward this type of state becoming a reality, but I’ve already ranted on for over 1100 words, and frankly I’m tired.

Bin Laden is Dead, Now What?

Numerous conspiracy theories, a deep recession, and ten years later, Osama Bin Laden has been found and killed. So, let’s take a look at what this really means. First of all, it’s a great boost of confidence to the people of the U.S. It’s something that people have been waiting for ever since the twin towers fell that September 11th morning. Second, this will bring some type of justice to the families of the people who got killed in the attacks, and it will also bring a sense of justice to the American people. Furthermore, this will bring a sense that the two (or three if you count Libya) wars this country is engaged in have some type of legitimacy to them. Up until this point many people have had no real idea why the U.S. has been engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq, and while many questions still remain about America’s engagement in Iraq, the fact that something concrete has actually been done brings a sense of victory to the mess that has been these two wars. When the troops start retracting back home later this year, they will do so with a sense of victory, not a sense of abandonment.

With all that said, I can’t help but wonder about two major things. Number one, what will the retaliation be? These Talibans haven’t been happy with the U.S. so far, this will only anger them even further. With all the extra security measures that is in place I doubt that there will be another terrorist attack anytime soon, however I think that there will be a lot of angry Talibans tomorrow and they will find a way to express that anger. Number two, now that one of the biggest elements of the American people’s anger is gone… will more attention be paid towards (maybe) more significant things? Will focus be turned away from the feeling of being nonsecure and the fear of the boogyman that has been terrorism and instead turned toward things that may be more immediately threatening to society? There will always be people that wants a lot of defense and focus on military, but maybe a few people will turn nationally and see what is wrong inside the country, and shine a light on the domestic terrorists that is the people that brought this country into a recession.

I’m hoping that this focus on fear and not feeling secure because of what a few crazy arabs did will go away. Fear only leads to stupidity and the making of big mistakes (Iraq is an example of this). A sense of urgency over a situation is different, but being scared can only lead to bad things and bad decisions. I’m really hoping that the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death will rid the American people of this fear that has been dominating people’s everyday life for the past ten years. This is a good thing, and I don’t say that about news of people that just died often.

Finals, Racist Trumps, and Birth Certificates

I haven’t been around much lately, that is completely my fault. It’s not you baby, it’s me. It’s all on me!!! Well, it’s also a little bit about my school and how much work I’ve been having to do lately. Actually it’s pretty much all about that, so blame college, not me! Finals have started, I have not slept for 72 hours, and I’m inside in a dark room in front of my computer when the sun is shining like a motherfucker outside… Me no gusta.

Even though I’ve been so occupied I’ve been following the whole Donald Trump’s plugs being racist about Obama’s graying hair. It’s too ugly to even comment on. I mean seriously, you’re gonna fuel the worst group of people in America, then when you get what you want you’re gonna take credit for it being released, and pat yourself on the back because you made the President of the United States show proof that he is in fact an American-born citizen. It’s funny how people forget how Obama’s opponent in 2008 actually wasn’t born on American soil, so don’t throw stones to begin with. Either way, once this is all done and over with, here come the after-birthers. Are these people serious? Inspecting every little thing on the birth certificate to make sure that it’s legit, pointing out this photoshop mistake and that photoshop mistake. This is the president of the United States we’re talking about, if he had his birth certificate forged and released to the public don’t you think that he would’ve used someone other than the intern at “graphics-r-us” to do it? Seriously? Then when I point that out, the rhetoric changes to “well, it was intentionally done in a sloppy way in order to to shy away from all the real issues the country is facing”… Really? So you people are not the exact same people that have been pushing this issue for years now?Instead of dealing with real issues you’ve been pushing this BS issue about Obama not being an American-born citizen, then you get proof, and YOU dissect every little aspect of the proof in order to find something wrong with it, then you have the audacity to say that someone else is doing all of this in order the focus to still be on this birth certificate. That is the worst logic (and the longest sentence) I have ever come across… Fuck you Alex Jones.

My partner said something yesterday that is so true, you just can’t argue with some people, some people will never change their opinions about anything so the best thing to do is just to give them a big happy “Go fuck yourselves”, and be done with it. So here it is. To all you birthers, after-birthers, tea party racists, homophobes, and to you Donald Trump… GO FUCK YOURSELVES!!!

Deuces

Ps. Once finals are done and over with a bunch of more elaborate posts are coming. One about gay advocates selling out, one how to deal with waking up on your gay side, and maybe even a guide on how to improve your sex life. So stay tuned!

Attention Seekers Will Get Attention

I don’t know if this is some grand scheme by the media to make people ignorant about real issues, or if it’s a much lesser scheme by people who think that we are just sheep who will enjoy any BS they will throw at us. All I know is that in order to make people we don’t want to hear about just go away all together, all we need to do is to not pay them any attention. It’s like the annoying kid in grade school that always thought he was funny when picking on the nerdy kid with glasses. His picking would be fueled by other people giving attention to him when he’s doing it, but it would go away if everyone would just ignore him.

There are some major issues I’m having problems with this week. Number one, Charlie “I’m not on drugs, I just look, and talk like I’m on drugs” Sheen. Who the fuck cares about this asshole? Charlie Sheen has been on every major network these past days talking about his life, his (according to him) non-drug habits, and his canceled TV show. He has even said that there are more important things in the world that needs attention other than focusing on him, yet he sells himself out like the money whore he is now that his show is off the air. I guess he needs to hustle a bit now that he doesn’t have an income anymore. It’s expensive to take care of four kids, a yacht, two-three mansions, two girlfriends, two ex-wives, and numerous million dollar-range motor vehicles.
So, instead of focusing on people that have actual problems, like the ~10% of the U.S. citizens that are out of work at the moment, the media is focusing on this douche that can’t play a role that has a name other than his own (seriously what is that about? Is it that he doesn’t understand that someone is talking to him if they don’t call him Charlie? YOU’RE AN ACTOR MORON). Today I read that Mr. Crackhe… I mean Mr. Sheen has gained one million followers on twitter in 24 hours. Are you kidding me people? Are you really that desperate to hear what this man has to say? You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

The second thing I’ve been thinking about is the whole Westboro Baptist Church hoopla. If you don’t know who they are, they are the people that have been protesting a variety of events, including fallen American soldier’s funerals, with messages like “You’re dead because of America’s support for gay rights”, or “God Hates Fags” etc. They are now in the news because a father who’s son was killed in Iraq sued the church for protesting at his son’s funeral. I don’t have a problem with that at all, I would’ve probably done something way worse than that if it was my kid’s funeral and those nutjobs started chanting their hate speech outside. Yesterday the supreme court ruled that they are allowed to continue their protests at fallen soldiers’ funerals. I have a big problem with that ruling, and people can scream “free speech” all they want, but it’s not a matter of their free speech being contended when they are using hate speech. If they were the KKK no one would lift an eyebrow if the supreme court would’ve ruled against them. It’s because they’re protesting “the gay lifestyle” instead of something society considers as being worse that they get away with it. Anyway, the real issue here is not really the supreme court’s ruling, it’s the fact that these people have a voice at all. Why even bring them up in the news? They are a hate speech group so ridiculous that even the Tea Partiers say “now, those guys are crazy”. Just ignore them and they will eventually go away.

I could talk about other people that should just be ignored, but I feel that by simply posting this text I have given people, that don’t deserve to be given any sort of attention, more attention than I really do want to give them. It’s a paradox to even write a post like this, but someone has to say it, and at least I’m not some big news corporation that is supposed to give legitimate news. I’m just me doing this because I love to write and I want to share my thoughts in some kind of medium. If you don’t like that, just ignore me, see how simple that was?

Are We Really This Pathetic?

The other day I had an online conversation with a gay man. He was an older nice gentleman, not in a relationship but he did have some thoughts on my relationship. For those of you who don’t know; I’ve been in a relationship for over four years now. My partner is older than I am, but hey, that’s how I like em. Anyway, this older gentleman and I had a conversation about a variety of stuff, but it was the last thing we talked about that really got my mind rolling. He gave me advice that, in reality probably is good advice, but at the same time… are gay people really so pathetic that I would have to take it?

The advice he gave me was that I should always have safe sex, even though I’ve been in a monogamous relationship for over four years. It doesn’t sound so terrible, and to some it may even sound like a smart thing to do. But think about this, my partner and I haven’t had safe sex in over three years. In the beginning of our relationship we did, and after a year we got tested and decided to skip the rubber. I like bare backing, I can’t lie about that, but I would never do it with someone that I can’t trust or that I don’t know is clean. So, now after we’ve made this decision together, should I all of a sudden say to him that I want to bring the little rubber ducky into our sex life again? So much for a hot threesome…

Telling my partner that I want to bring condoms back into our relationship is telling him one of two things; I’m either telling him “Haha, I’m cheating on you so we need to use rubbers again because I don’t want to give you my adulterating bugs.” or I’m telling him “Bitch, I don’t trust you, so you gotta wear this condom”. I’m not sure which one is better to be honest… Either way, it’s all about trust.

I’ve never heard anyone give the advice to a straight couple before. “You’ve been married four years? Time to get the rubber back into the relationship, you know… with all the HIV floating around”. Come on, the only reason he said it was because we have a same-sex relationship. I’m not gonna brush under the carpet that gays are more promiscuous than straights, because we are, it’s even scientifically proven that we are, but the data also shows that gay men are about as unfaithful as straight men are. So why should there be any more risk of catching a bug if you’re in a gay relationship, than if you’re in a straight one? When HIV first blew up around the world it is true that gay men was a larger group of infected people than any other, but it has pretty much evened out over the years, and now the rates are about the same between gays and straights. The more important question however is, why should I have to be more worried about my partner cheating on me, than a straight woman? As I said, the data shows that straight men are in the same range of being as unfaithful as gay men, but I can’t see anyone having this conversation with a straight married/tied-up woman.

The whole thing comes down to how we see ourselves and our group. Are we really so pathetic that we must constantly be on our toes about our partners cheating even if the relationship has been solid for four plus years? I can tell you that I won’t be, I trust my partner completely, and I’m pretty sure he trusts me completely as well. And honestly, if someone has this conversation with me again, I think I will be more offended than I was this time…

Gays are Sinners, Yet You Fuck Around on Your Wife

Oh laaawdy lawd. This week married New York republican representative Chris Lee was caught cruising for women on craigslist (which is so 2006 btw). To me it’s starting to get real fucking laughable how these people time and time again get caught in these type of situations. It’s one thing to cheat on your wife, or get caught going to strip clubs, or get caught with a hooker. It’s another thing being a politician doing it. And it’s even worse when you’re a Republican politician doing it. The reason for the latest statement is very clear and simple; republicans are time and time again working against gay rights, and trying to uphold this so called “sanctity of marriage” that they so clearly possess a shitload of.

I honestly don’t care what people do on their spare time, if they want to fuck around on their wives, go ahead, I have nothing to do with that. Even though their wives are getting hurt, it’s still a matter for them to deal with, not me. However, when my personal and my minority group’s rights are being challenged by said adulterer, that’s when it gets to be my business. Who the fuck are you to say that my MONOGAMOUS loving relationship is sinful and shouldn’t be acknowledged by the federal government as legitimate as to grant us the ca 1,200 benefits that come with a legally bound partnership, when you clearly can’t keep your dirty ass dick in your pants? <insert more curse words here>

And this week’s republican scandal is just a drop in the whore-filled sea that is the republican sex scandals. I was going to make a list of every single one in the recent years, but after doing some research I found that that would take me about a year and a half, so I’m just going to put down the juiciest and gayest ones:

2010: Roy Ashburn, California State Senator gets arrested for drunk driving on his way home from a gay bar. Later he admitted to being gay. AssFuckingHole.

2009: Alan David Berlin, aide of Senator Jane Orie of Pennsylvania gets arrested for sending detailed emails to a fifteen year old boy. The emails consisted of sexual innuendos and fantasies where he dressed up as a panda bear (I can’t make this shit up). People with this sexual fetish are called “Furries”, people wanting sex with fifteen year old boys are called pedophiles. PedoBear.

2009: John Ensign, Senator from Nevada gets ousted for fucking around on his wife with a married staffer. Later he accuses her of trying to extort him, but evidence comes out that shows he was trying to pay her off to keep quiet. AssMunch.

2008: Matthew Joseph Elliott, aide of Mitt Romney, is convicted of sexually exploiting a child. PedoAss.

2008: Robert McKee, Maryland delegate, convicted of possession of child porn. PedoFuck.

2007: Robert “Bob” Allen, Florida state representative, got caught by a male undercover cop trying to buy oral sex for $20 from him. CheapFuck.

2007: Richard Curtis, Washington state representative, got caught with a male escort. This fucker voted time and time again against a variety of gay rights-issues. HypocriticalDick.

2006: Mark Foley, Florida republican representative, sex chat with several men. This was attempted to be covered up by such big shots as John Boehner (hehe Boner). AssDick.

2005: John Gosek, Mayor of Oswego, NY, got arrested for paying an undercover cop $250 to take him to a hotel room to have sex with two 15 year old girls. PayingPedo.

2005: Jeff Miller, Senate Caucus Chairman in Tennessee, sponsor of Tennessee Marriage Protection Act, gets divorced because of being an adulterer. He supported the Marriage Protection Act, except for the part about not being a sleezy fuckass and not cheat on your wife. SinfulFuck.

2005: Jeffrey Kyle Randall, Mayor of Clarkfield, Minnesota, got sentenced to jail for molesting two under-aged boys (10 and 12) during a six year period. PedoMayo.

2005: Jim West, Mayor of Spokane, had a sexual relationship with an 18 year old man. He supported bills that would have prevented gay people from working in schools, daycare centers, etc. He also voted against the state being able to distribute pamphlets on how to protect yourself from getting HIV. And lastly said that “any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person” among teenagers should be criminalized. I guess that didn’t work out too well for ya, did it. FittHora.

Ok, those were some of the best examples from the last few years. There’s a whole list of republican sex scandals that can be found here.
http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Republican_Sex_Scandals
Enjoy the reading.

To be a little bit serious for a while. People may come at me saying “not all republicans engage in this behavior” or “not all republicans are against gay rights”. And sure, those people are right. However, there is a buttload of republican sex scandals, ranging from Senators, to Priests, to Radio show hosts. And it is fact that the majority of the republican party has voted against, or come out against, bills/legislatures that would grant gays rights in this country. That’s why this whole thing is so hypocritical. If you think marriage is so holy and should be protected from us evil gays at all cost, then the first step you should take is to keep your dick in your pants. It’s as simple as that. You can’t come to me and tell me that how I live my life is wrong, or sinful, based upon a book that also clearly states what you’re doing is wrong, or sinful. Probably a lot more wrong and sinful than what I’m doing too.

Say what you want about other type of issues the republicans stand for, but honestly, if you are gay and you care about gay rights, are these really the people you want to associate yourself with? (I’m talking to you Jimmy LaSalvia). I understand that people have different ideas about the economy, national protection, welfare systems, or whatever, but at this point in time when we as a group really do lack a lot of rights in society, what is more important? It may be a bit selfish to only focus on this issue, but at the same time, enough is fucking enough (I had to get one more “Fuck” in there).

Fuck count: 15

Why the Floopyness?

People make me so confused sometimes… The other night I was waiting for a sociology class I’m taking to begin (the one I’ve written about here earlier btw), and I was just sitting minding my own business, surfing on my computer or whatever. All of a sudden this girl sitting next to me turned to me and said: “Excuse me, is your name Derek?”… I looked at her, grimaced at her weird growth in the corner of her eye and I told her that it was not. She said “Oh, because you look exactly like a friend of mine, his name is Derek, he’s my best friend’s boyfriend”. Like the good sport I am, I just kind of laughed it off, and just stated that no, I’m not him, we exchanged (and quickly forgot) names and I returned to my computer screen. In my head however this was my response to her: “Bitch, you can’t tell the difference between your best friend’s boyfriend and me? If I would’ve been him, don’t you think I would’ve said hi to you since you stood outside the classroom ogling me like I’m some type of zoo animal in a completely non-subtle way. Or are you just so fucking stupid that you assume that because I look like your friend’s boyfriend, my name must also be Derek?”. Yes, in my head, I am a very mean person.

Once I got home and spoke to my boyfriend about it, he had a different approach to the whole thing, his idea was that there was no friend named Derek at all, that it was just an ice breaker to get to know my name. And I started thinking about it, and it may have been just that. It may also have been an order from her very frilly gay friend that was sitting one chair over listening intensely to our conversation. If he’s gay, he has definitely seen me in one of the few local gay clubs, so he may have been the instigator to the whole thing. Either way, it seemed to just be a lame way to get some info about me…

Are we, as a species, really this floopy about shit? I mean seriously, if you want to know my name, just ask my damn name, I would be very more open to talking to you if I felt like it was real and not either some made up lie to get contact, or just plain stupidity. Granted, this girl was probably still in her teens, or early twenties at best, but come on… you don’t have more game than that? Most other people I have interacted with in classes have been pretty straight with me, I got in contact with one of my best friends in school by pretty much saying hi in a class, asking her name and we pretty much hit it off right away. I don’t like this fakeness or game-playing that some people pull, it’s a big turn off socially for me and it does not make me want to get to know the person any better. And if it was some other agenda, sexual or whatever, it’s just sad. You can’t ask me straight up about something? Hell ask me straight up if I’m gay or not, I got nothing to hide, even though I don’t wear it on my sleeve. The whole thing is just so stupid…

I’m glad I’m in the natural sciences, people seem to be on pretty much the same wavelength as I am most of the time in those classes. I’m taking this weird ass molecularelectromagnonanopenisvagina class (I seriously don’t know the name of it, but it’s something like that… almost at least), and we have so much fun in that class. Granted we are only ten students taking it, but everyone seem to be pretty much on the same level when it comes to interests, aspirations, humor, maturity, etc. and the ages rein from 21 until 40, so it’s pretty diverse to start with. It’s just such a difference interacting with those people than it is interacting with people in classes not directly related to the natural sciences.

Ok, I’m gonna stop ranting about socially awkward people now.
Until next time!

Is the Internet Making People Cowardly?

A couple of days ago I put up a post about black homophobes. One person commented trying to point out flaws in my arguments, and I really respect that and encourage a discussion (as long as it’s on a good level). We went back and forth for a few comments and then he suddenly stopped commenting. In this case I have no idea what happened, he may come back and answer my comment sooner or later, or he may have had a terrible accident and is in a full body cast for all I know. I’m not pointing fingers at just him, but it did get me thinking; is the fact that it’s so easy to walk away from discussions on the internet making people more cowardly?

If him and I would’ve had the discussion eye to eye, we would’ve discussed it until it was done and over it, or until one of us had to pee, either way the discussion would’ve been finished. On the internet however, if you have a discussion and you come across arguments you cannot combat, something you don’t like, or something you are uncomfortable answering, all you have to do is leave and never come back. I love the internet, and I love the fact that a person can be anonymous and still have an opinion. But I’m not too sure that it’s a healthy thing when it comes to the development of people’s minds. Of course people should hold on to their beliefs and morals, but it’s never wrong to change an opinion because someone else presents you with facts or ideas that may trump the one you had before hand. On the internet this is something that is very hard to attain simply because it’s so easy to walk away from a discussion.

People don’t generally like change, and especially not change within themselves, so changing your own opinion about a subject you feel strongly about may be the hardest thing in the world, especially if you’re a very proud and/or stubborn person. It’s scary for some people to realize that they are wrong, hell it’s scary to me sometimes (just ask my partner), and when you’re provided with such an easy out for admitting that someone else’s opinion trumps yours, most people will take it. I’ve done it multiple times probably without even thinking about it. Sometimes it’s because I don’t feel like it’s worth my time since the person with whom I’m having a discussion won’t ever budge no matter what facts I throw at him. Sometimes it’s just because I rather take the easy way out. Is that wrong? Probably. The more important question is though, has it actually stagnated my own intellectual growth by not finishing discussions and maybe truly understand what a person from another viewpoint is saying? It most likely has.

Ask yourself, how many political, philosophical, or other types of discussions you’ve had on the internet have you left simply because you felt defeated and didn’t want to admit it? For me it’s probably more than I can count, and it’s funny because as I’m writing this I’m starting to remember more and more discussions that I’ve left, and I’m starting to feel quite embarrassed about it. Why can’t I just say “you know what, I really see what you’re saying and I think you’re right about this”? Is that really such a blow to my own ego that I can’t even admit that another person, even on the internet, has a good argument that might make me get more insightful about a particular subject? Maybe if people were more open minded about other people’s ideas and opinions, and not so hard headed about keeping our own unmodified, we would get a more productive and understanding society overall…

What do you think?…

 

 

 

… *logging out*