Gender: Male
Status: In a Relationship
Age: 26
Sign: Scorpio
City: Lone Tree
State: Colorado
Country: US
Signup Date:
08/29/05
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Monday, December 04, 2006
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PC Terminology
Current mood:  amused
Category: Life
Politically correct?
I was sitting at my desk at work a little while ago when my good friend had a question for me. Now normally when my friend asks me a question at work, she'll just march on over and ask about fuel pumps, aerodynamics, jet engines, or any number of other technical subjects.
This one time though, she came over all sheepishly and leaned in to whisper.
I have to admit that part of me got all excited because I've got quite the forbidden crush on her.
So when she was leaning in, the possible conversations started running through my mind: "I've broken up with my fiancée," "Let's go grab 'coffee'," etc. But no.
She barely whispers in my ear, "Justin, what is the PC term for dykes?"
I'm sure my jaw started to drop at this point. Why on earth was she asking me… at work at that? But being the all-knowing guy that I am, I quietly reply, "The politically correct term is lesbian I believe."
She looks at me with an obvious what-the-hell look, but then leans back in and says in a somewhat louder voice, "No. You know, dykes? What's the PC term for dykes"
Apparently I don't know. So I respond again and say, at my normal speaking volume, "Yeah. Lesbians."
So at this point, I'm sure people near my desk have started to look over and wonder why a guy and girl in our office are talking about lesbians just a couple weeks after had to take workplace sensitivity training, but we press on.
She says, "No. DYKES!"
Clearly confused, I ask her what the hell she needs to know for.
She hands me the engineering drawing she's been working on and points to the first note on the page. "TRIM WITH DYKES"
So I finally get it. She was using the engineering slang for die-cutters (they cut metal tubes) that are universally referred to as dykes. Apparently she didn't know their real name. Yeah. Ouch.
6:23 AM
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3 Comments - 6 Kudos
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Saturday, September 30, 2006
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Think for yourself!
Current mood:  aggravated
Instead of pulling out my hair over this, I've decided to rant to myspace. Not because pulling my hair out isn't a great time, but because I think that myspace is a perfect example of where people need this. "What" you ask? Insight, opinions/reflection, and personality. This is an issue that has been bugging me and, frankly, it's time to get it out there. I've recently started to notice in a lot people I meet from people at work, to people I date, to people I see around me, that no one has any opinions on anything or, if they do, they're just regurgitated ideas that their spouse or parents gave them. It appears that people are either 1) too ignorant to pay attention to the world around them, 2) they are afraid to disagree with you or express originality, or 3) they readily believe everything they hear at face value or 4) they are just idiots. I'm going to hope that it isn't just number 4. UGGGGGH!!!!
Let me give you some examples:
- On recent dates, I've asked girls what they think about some hot topics to get a feel for who they are. I've said things like "what's your position on border security," "how do you feel about abortion," and "what do you think about the President?" Now these aren't questions that I'm necessarily going to judge them on. You're pro-life and I'm pro-choice? So what? We at least have something to talk about. Responding with "ummmmm, I don't know. I don't have any feeling about that" is just about the biggest turn-off in the world. Do you have any opinions on anything? Do you mind if I start eating babies? "Not really."
- People's Myspace pages are perfect examples. "I like to party and hang out with friends." There's a winner. Everyone likes to party and hang out with his or her friends. Hell, retarded monkeys party and hang out with their friends. Tell me something about you…"I'm up for anything once." Really? So you'd smoke pot or get drunk at a friend's parents' house? Wow, cool. How about some specifics? The sad thing is that I know intelligent, interesting people who put dumb crap like this on their "about me" sections because they think that's what people want to see and it will make them more popular. In my book that defines a boring, gullible, easily peer-pressured, emotionless zombie of a person who'd be about as much fun to hang out with as a cheese sandwich. And not that good kind of cheese sandwich. No, a moldy Gouda cheese on rye sandwich.
- The last group, "regurgitaters," is my personal favorite. This is sort of a broad category. There are the "I heard it on Air America or Rush" so it must be true people and the "Well Paris Hilton likes it so I must too" group. A good example of the first type are those people who say George Bush was behind 9/11. Yeah, okay. Just because Jeannine Garofalo said so, obviously the planes were flown by the CIA and the buildings were rigged. Sure, that makes sense. Oh yeah, we faked the moon landing too. And the second type? "Mom, I need $2000 so I can go to the mall and buy Ugg boots and those gigantic retarded sunglasses that make me look like a mutant fruit fly, I mean Nicole Ritchie." Have people just had their "brain" switches turned off?
So at this point I'm ranting. I'll do that. It is just becoming increasingly painful for me to walk around and see people in these zoned-out mindsets. Start thinking! I don't have to agree with you. That's fine. I might like it more, but I'd certainly rather disagree with someone who has a strong difference of opinion than some mindless zombie.
Now I should probably clear up the fact that if you are on my friends list and you're reading this, you certainly don't fit into any of these categories. So thank you for saving humanity and putting up with this rant. If you didn't like it, GOOD! Tell me!
2:21 AM
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2 Comments - 2 Kudos
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Monday, April 10, 2006
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Ask a ninja! No, seriously. Do it!
Current mood: amused
If you haven't seen it yet, you certainly must. We ninjas are few indeed so appreciate the one you have!
http://www.askaninja.com/
Watch Ask A Ninja: Question 17 "Ninja Omnibus"
9:29 PM
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Friday, October 21, 2005
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My ridiculous morning
Current mood:  annoyed
Here’s a funny thing that happened to me this morning (Friday, October 21st):
So because I just moved back from Boston and my new lease on my next apartment doesn’t start until November, I get to live the month of October in my parents’ basement. That’s right, I’m almost 24 and I’m living the month in my parents’ basement. I’ll be the first to admit that that’s both bogus and sad. At least I have the new apartment that I’m moving into very soon (and technically I still have an apartment in Boston, but whatever).
Anyway, that’s not the point of this story. Back to what happened this morning…
Generally, when a person needs to get up at, say, 6:30 to get to work on time, they set an alarm clock. Unfortunately for me, I got the always unpleasant knock on my door (my bedroom door that is) at 5:30 this morning. Having received little sleep last night, I have to admit that I was less than pleasant toward my dad when he asked me to get up and come to the door. More specifically, he knocked and said "Hey Just(in), come here a sec." Now, when you live at home with your family, coming to your bedroom door in the middle of the night in your boxers isn’t terribly awkward. What is terribly awkward is when you come to the door, turn on the light and see that there’s a cop standing there with your father. What makes it even better is when you realize that your hair is standing on end, your boxers are barely covering you and you look like the living dead…fabulous.
Seeing that someone was standing there (I didn’t yet know it was a cop because I was still waking up and I didn’t have my glasses or contacts in) I went back into my room, put on my glasses and came back to see that it was a cop, standing at my bedroom door at 5:30 am. Obviously I was in for a fun day already. At this point I decided that it might have been nice if my dad said "Hey Justin, there’s a cop here to see you, you may want to put on some clothes." Nah, that’d be way too helpful and probably prevent a potentially embarrassing situation.
Right off the bat, I get asked where I was last night, who can vouch for me and how long I’ve been living at my parents’ house. Ugh. I’m ridiculously tired, confused, cranky, and now I’m being interrogated?
Then I get asked about my parents’ car. Let me correct that, a car my parents are borrowing from a friend while their Jetta is in the shop. Now this car sucks. Really. It’s hella-lame. It’s a 1982 buick P.O.S. Do you remember the P.O.S. line? Sorry, I’m getting off track. So they ask me if I’ve ever driven the car. No, of course not. Not only am I far too afraid to risk being seen in it, but I have a sweet-ass car parked right next to it that belongs and is registered to me.
So at this point I am really, really confused (you probably are too). I’ve been woken up at the ass-crack of dawn, have had very little sleep, and now I’m being asked about my parents’ friend’s car in my boxer shorts by a cop in my bedroom. Lame…
Eventually the cop left me alone, apparently pleased with the consistency of my story, but on the way out he had my father and I show him that the car was cold (it hadn’t been run for hours) and that there was nothing fishy going on with it.
So what the hell?
We find out later-on today that a jogger in the neighborhood had seen two short and fairly chubby teens (three adjectives that certainly don’t describe me) "criminally trespassing" into houses and the elementary school in the area. The jogger remembered the make and color of the car along with a partial plate and gave the info to the cops. This had to happen at like four this morning. What kind of pretentious bastard jogs at four in the morning while there’s frost on the ground? (I need to focus….focus…).
The cops traced the car to our friend (a fifty year old lady down the street) and made her answer a crap-load of questions about my brother and I (who she doesn’t even know at all) and then give them information on finding us. Apparently, there is like one of these P.O.S. cars in Parker and it just so happens to be parked in our driveway right now. Sucks for us I suppose. Either way, the cops seemed happy enough with me when they left that they didn’t think I was up to anything (who breaks into a house at four in the morning with a getaway car that peaks out a like ten miles an hour anyway?).
The moral of the story seems to be that doing something nice for a friend, say lending them a car while theirs is in the shop means that you’ll have to be interrogated by the cops at 5:15 am and asked every intricate detail of their lives and then your friends will have to do the same at 5:30. That doesn’t seem fair does it? Maybe the moral of the story should be don’t do nice things for people because it’s just going to come back and get you in a very weird, twilight zone sorta way.
What I think is particularly funny is that I’m like the best "kid" in the world. I was valedictorian, an Eagle Scout, a full-ride scholarship recipient, I’ve fought two criminals on the street (and won), and volunteered at assisted living homes in Boulder. Yeah, I must have committed some sort of dumb-ass crime.
That’s it folks, sorry about the length of the story. I just needed to vent and tell people about this. How crazy is that? The worst thing is that it’s completely true…all of it. Today just sucked.
11:00 PM
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Friday, October 14, 2005
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Loyalty
Current mood:  contemplative
Loyalty:
Recent events in my life have forced me to reflect on the importance of relationships in life. There are of course many relationships that people have in their lives, but I believe that there are truly three different types that matter: one’s relationship to oneself, one’s relationship to friends and family, and one’s relationship to loved ones (girlfriend/boyfriend, spouse, etc.).
In my experience, I’ve found that it is not the concept of self, friend, and lover that matter as much as how those concepts relate to loyalty. Allow me to explain...
Many people believe that they are interesting, unique, fun, deep, and a litany of other things. Often they are, we just don’t get to see that side of them. What happens is that these individual personalities are separated from the persona, the facade, put forth by the individual. People often hide who they are, or just plain forget what really matters to them and the fundamental beliefs that define their existence. The individual forms a second persona which he or she uses to interact with others, the whole time suppressing their true self. They go out of their way to impress their friends or new people they meet. This is disloyal to one’s self. A person becomes so obsessed with pleasing others, trying to fit in, not to be different, not to stand out, that they betray their own identity in their quest for conformity and acceptance. You can be an individual without personal loyalty/integrity. This individual, though, is not who you really are. It is an artifact of a soul that is lacking the integrity to express its true nature.
Loyalty plays an important role at the level of personal relationships with friends and family. I have been exceptionally lucky in life, in that I have a small group of extremely loyal friends. What is loyalty in friendship? Loyalty is sticking up for your friend even though he or she has made a stupid decision knowing that they will learn from the mistake, be responsible for their actions, and grow as an individual. It is trusting your friend to act in accordance with your shared values, trusting them not to deceive or lie to you, trusting them to act in your interest. Loyalty in friendship is not breaking the friendship over an argument, but using the disagreement to strengthen the bond of brother/sisterhood and become closer yet as friends. Loyalty is standing up against your friends if they are acting against their personal identity (see above), but sticking up for them anyway even if they don’t. Loyalty is knowing that your friends are there to support you at three in the morning when you are at your emotional/spiritual weakest. Friends who are not loyal are not really friends.
Relationships with significant others require the most loyalty. Interpersonal relationships dealing with love, romance, and trust play such strong roles in defining a person’s emotional state that they must be treated with reverence and the utmost loyalty. Everyone knows that the broken bond of trust is difficult to mend. When that bond involves love it is nearly impossible to repair. Consider the effects of lying, cheating, and deception on relationships. Coping with a lying or cheating spouse/significant other is the most emotionally painful situation that most people will ever encounter. On one hand they may love the other with all their hearts, but on the other, they have been betrayed and their loyalty broken, so damaging an action that the relationship cannot last. This brings us back to the issue of loyalty. Because people wear their hearts on their sleeves in love relationships, they should be able to trust that this vulnerability will not be taken advantage of. They must be able to trust and rely upon the loyalty/honor of the other person, for without it, there is no basis for a lasting or pleasant relationship. Trust me on this one.
It seems that loyalty is severely lacking everywhere I turn. People are deceiving themselves, friends aren’t acting loyal or are pretending to (worse), and significant others are flat out betraying their loved ones. I write this with the hope that people will take a little time now and then to re-evaluate their relationships with themselves, their friends/family, and with their loved ones. I wish that they take the time to truly define their own beliefs and values and integrate them into their personalities. Stop betraying friends or lying behind their backs. Stick up for your friends, support them in difficult times and provide for them a foundation of trust and kinship that they can always fall back on. Lastly, be honest to your loved ones. Trust and loyalty in love is by far the most difficult thing to come by, yet the most valuable thing of all. In general, there needs to be more honor in the world and the only way it will ever come about is if people start acting responsibly and loyally.
2:11 AM
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6 Comments - 8 Kudos
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