Thursday, April 17, 2008

can't sleep. the jerks will get me.

I have been in a good mood lately, except for when I'm not. And a lot of that "not" time is when I am stuck in traffic on the drive home from work. In fairness, I work about 7 miles away from my house, BUT I have to battle a Southern California freeway change, which is tough! I know that griping about a 20-30 minute commute is lame, especially when everyone else drives for hours (plural) to/from work. So I usually keep it to myself, except to yell at other drivers. Of course, I have my windows up, but that is beside the point. It's therapeutic. Anyway, that 20 minutes or so affords me some thinking time, especially about selfish people. And what their world must be like.

As a driver, I am overly cautious. Ask Ryan how many exits or freeway changes I have missed because I can't bring myself to gun it and swerve over into other lanes. It's less of a joke and more of a tragedy. But what is up with those people who DO that? Just think nothing of it, swerving at the last second to swoop in and make everyone else stomp their brakes to accommodate? My particular peeve concerns my exit from the freeway, where every bloomin' idiot in the world rides the exit lane to the last remaining inches, stops their car, then meekishly turns on their left signal. It's not an accident if I see you do it every day, jerk! [expletive deleted]

These drivers are only a small part of the overall problem. What about the everyone else that gallavants through life willy-nilly with no concern for other people? What is that like? Can I just try it? Or do you have to have been raised that way? You know, like the lady who butts in front of you in line or the guy who stands directly in front of you at Blockbuster or the people who don't go around you, but instead just shove their way past? And it's not enough that these people are there to thwart me at every turn, but what about the Bigger Idiots? You know the ones. The people who do really bad stuff, but everyone just kind of forgives and forgets? I'll give you a personal example: someone who is close to me once stole everything (and I mean everything) that wasn't bolted down and hocked it for drug money. Not only did no one complain, but they refuse to mention it. It's like it never happened. There's a gaping hole where the TV used to be, and they just shrug. A friend of mine's ex needed to borrow his car while hers was in the shop - and then never gave the car back. It's been like 7 years AND NO ONE HAS SAID ANYTHING. So, yes, the people I know are obviously fools, but what about the stealers? The borrowers? What the hell is their life like?

I'm not saying that I would want to be like that - heck, I wouldn't even know where to start! - but why is it that if I forget to repay $2 that someone owes me, I get a nagging reminder? If I forget to send thank you cards, I get phone calls asking me where they are. Why is the accountability level so out of whack? Why do people who are jerks in general win cash and prizes and the people who work hard, are ethical, and are decent get shafted? Why does a lovely person that I know have to drive a car with broken air conditioning? And at the same time someone else causes crisis after crisis for their family and is rewarded with a brand new car? This is what keeps me up at night.

Side rant note: when did the internet become high school? What's up with all these cliques and "popular people" and celebrities? Sure, there is a place in the blogosphere for fame, I get that (and no I'm not personally aiming for that. 5 years in obscurity should prove that I am not here for the ad revenue.). But it seems like more and more lately, I stumble across conversations where people are asking the question "why is that site famous? why do we care?" and NO ONE has an answer. Or, the response is "you had to be there in the beginning", essentially: you have to be on the inside to know why the clique is so popular. And so seemingly good ideas like blogging conferences and meet-ups and get-to-know-ya events have been taken over by the Popular Crowd who now flies first class courtesy of their corporate sponsors to sit pretty on the pedestal, like the prom queen, waving to the peasants. Which has ruined it for me. I respect people who go to BlogHer and other conferences like that to get information on how to tap into online communities and make a viable business for themself. But it also breaks my heart when I hear about their miserable time, because they were on the outside of some fictitious community of megalomaniacs. And it hurts me a little too, because I have been part of the blogging community for a long time (this site alone has been up 5 years, not counting previous iterations) and there are LOTS of people that I'd love to have an excuse to be in the same room with. Only, I don't want to promote the Famous Because We Said So crowd, which is what is bringing these events together in the first place "squee! SHE might be there!" Bleh.

I don't really know how to end this post, but I am sick of jerks, glad the week's almost over, and am super excited to see my friends and JULIE ANDREWS tomorrow. peace out.

2 comments:

Miss Bliss said...

Sigh...I know what you mean...all the way around. The only thing I can do is work to not contribute to thoughtlessness, rudeness and downright cruelty that I often see around me. I have to trust that karma works it all out in the end and I know for a fact that cutting drug addicts slack for their crimes is a death sentence for them...too bad so many people think it's a kindness.

As for the blogosphere...eh.

I love you the way you are and adore all five of my readers...'nuf said.

Anonymous said...

"Skeletor - Why won't they let me in! I have my blinker on! It's common courtesy! *car full of superheros laugh at the villian fools and drive away*" --Robot Chicken

Whenever I wonder about the popularity of certain blogs, I just keep in mind that the majority of people thought Celine Dion was a good idea, too...

And whenever I think about the injustice of things, I comfort myself with the evil thought, "Wow, they probably just peaked out. That's probably going to be the best thing that will ever happen to them. Poor things..." :) I'm not a nice person sometimes.

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