And here goes nothin'
Mar. 31st, 2004 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hippybngstockngI am cleaning. My mom is going to be visiting for a few days- Must. not. do. journal.
I would have to go friends only and then tell her I never post anymore, or I would have to deal with her- my posting my innermost thoughts on the internet would be the one thing that might make my mom get off her lazy ass and learn how to use the thing so I'd rather not. Call it perpetuated petty teenage rebellion if you must, but if you knew my mom for the invasive nagging creep that she is then you'd understand.
I was watching an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" which is a weird habit I've picked up lately- I don't really like it most of the time, but sometimes I do, and I just end up watching it. But they were having a moment where Ray's mom gets mad at him for something he wrote in his journal when he was 13. It was one of those grey areas of parenting that make me really uncomfortable. My mom read my journal at one point in my life and learned some really unpleasant things about me I'd been trying to keep under the rug, and I really couldn't forgive her for it, but at the same time I also realized I should have known- That was the point of the Raymond episode, the older brother had realized his mother would read it if he hid it anywhere in the house (because whose mother doesn't know every inch of their house, nothing is sacred after all) and had a safety deposit box he supposedly hid his in, and a decoy under the mattress for the mother to read. So when Ray wrote, "I hate my mother" his mom was shattered because the other brother wrote, "Mom's chicken was wonderful tonight!"
I have learned my lesson. There are times when I cut and paste things and email them to her saying they came from someplace else. I don't completely cut her off, I am a little too mature for that. But no, she's not aware of my Livejournal and as long as Crash can manage to keep his mouth shut (he's almost blown it by telling HIS mother a couple times, which is a natural reflex he still has to resist because his mother WOULD tell my mother because they are friends, and wonderful though she is she has no memory for secrets.) So I am going to go quiet I am sure except for the occasional hurried update when she leaves the building (which she is supposed to a couple times at least). She is taking care of K for Crash and I to go out a couple nights, and I am hoping she will take him out with her for a few hours during the day on Friday so I can get some things done around the house. Of course I will have to actually get something done around the house, so no promises!
A few thoughts before I depart: Crash has been delighting in getting me to play video games (which is making the cleaning suffer I tell ya) and I have to say I feel as silly as I thought I might for not trying it before. I still don't think I could handle a driving game- I mash the buttons something fierce in my panic, so fighting is really my strong point since I can keep punching and punching and kicking and hitting you with sticks until you die. I have never felt comfortable getting into playing though because of, well, history... There's this friend of mine (from long long ago who is not on LJ that I know of) who if she ever reads this will likely disown me, but she is my example for why people like me shouldn't play games with other people. She gets mad when she loses like I do, but she doesn't leave it at that. She will go on and on about you, your mother, your personal hygiene anything she can think of to abuse you into the ground for having the audacity to beat her. I'm not that bad, but I do take it pretty personally if you beat me even if I realize that's a completely irrational response. I behave badly, or if I don't I still stay upset for a long time, so my solution has always been to just not play. I figure I am happy enough watching other people play and supporting them (I try not to back seat too much, but sometimes that happens) but I stay on the side lines and just enjoy the aroma of competition. Competing with people makes me uncomfortable. I've gotten much better over the years (living with Crash has really taught me a lot about gaming and how to enjoy losing) so I am trying more and more and really enjoying it.
So now that I am playing Soul Calibur II (and I swear I am not hooked, despite the fact that I think the entirety of my dreams was like a big twisted Sci-Fi Hong Kong Smack Down) I am really getting a kick out of it. I don't think about it at all, I have no idea what button combinations actually mean something, I am mainly just smashing the ones I know do the most good and avoiding the ones I know don't seem to help me much, and I am seriously kicking ass and taking names! I got up to the next to last level on the Arcade thingy and Crash told me after it had been set on hard! So why was I ever afraid of it? I have no clue. I think I was worried it would make those nice boys who used to come to our house think I was a mean awful girl if I lost to them and got all bitchy about it, but as J keeps pointing out, it's trash talk and it's normal. But for me it's completely alien to my proper presbyterian upbringing! Nice girls don't go on about how much they hate you and would like to pin you in a corner and push their fire cannon into your chest until they see your mangled rotting heart burst out the other side still beating!!!! This is also not a wonderful parenting influence either... I keep it to "I KICK YOUR ASS!" when K is awake, but even then I am waiting to hear it piped back at me some day, probably when we're at another kid's birthday party in front of tons of other parents I don't know, you know, when you least expect it!
And now I will shift a little back toward parenting: I got one of those "pass it on" emails, you know the kind... I used to get a lot more of them back in the day, and sometimes I passed them on, but mostly I didn't. I've always gotten pissed off by chain letters. When I was a kid I liked them, they were fascinating and educational experiments to me. These days they are a giant waste of time or postage depending on what form they come in, but I read all of them anyway because I am also fascinated to see how they've mutated and changed in the infinite game of telephone that is the internet, and many of them amuse me greatly.
Today I got one from a friend who usually sticks to life affirming encouragement type things, which I never mind, and I read them all both for curiosity and because they are often a nice warm fuzzy to brighten my day. I haven't seen this one in a while, but I know I've seen before. I've edited out most of the "pass it on" bits, but feel free if you're a parent or parent or parent-sympathizer to cut it and paste it and send it on, post it, whatever. I left the little bit at the bottom that I am pretty sure was part of the original. I don't agree with all of it, but it's amusing.
This is so true!
To the survivors:
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's probably shouldn't have survived.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors! We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones.
Unthinkable.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.
We had friends! We went outside and found them.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth,and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was
unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
And you're one of them!
Congratulations. Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors!
I would have to go friends only and then tell her I never post anymore, or I would have to deal with her- my posting my innermost thoughts on the internet would be the one thing that might make my mom get off her lazy ass and learn how to use the thing so I'd rather not. Call it perpetuated petty teenage rebellion if you must, but if you knew my mom for the invasive nagging creep that she is then you'd understand.
I was watching an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" which is a weird habit I've picked up lately- I don't really like it most of the time, but sometimes I do, and I just end up watching it. But they were having a moment where Ray's mom gets mad at him for something he wrote in his journal when he was 13. It was one of those grey areas of parenting that make me really uncomfortable. My mom read my journal at one point in my life and learned some really unpleasant things about me I'd been trying to keep under the rug, and I really couldn't forgive her for it, but at the same time I also realized I should have known- That was the point of the Raymond episode, the older brother had realized his mother would read it if he hid it anywhere in the house (because whose mother doesn't know every inch of their house, nothing is sacred after all) and had a safety deposit box he supposedly hid his in, and a decoy under the mattress for the mother to read. So when Ray wrote, "I hate my mother" his mom was shattered because the other brother wrote, "Mom's chicken was wonderful tonight!"
I have learned my lesson. There are times when I cut and paste things and email them to her saying they came from someplace else. I don't completely cut her off, I am a little too mature for that. But no, she's not aware of my Livejournal and as long as Crash can manage to keep his mouth shut (he's almost blown it by telling HIS mother a couple times, which is a natural reflex he still has to resist because his mother WOULD tell my mother because they are friends, and wonderful though she is she has no memory for secrets.) So I am going to go quiet I am sure except for the occasional hurried update when she leaves the building (which she is supposed to a couple times at least). She is taking care of K for Crash and I to go out a couple nights, and I am hoping she will take him out with her for a few hours during the day on Friday so I can get some things done around the house. Of course I will have to actually get something done around the house, so no promises!
A few thoughts before I depart: Crash has been delighting in getting me to play video games (which is making the cleaning suffer I tell ya) and I have to say I feel as silly as I thought I might for not trying it before. I still don't think I could handle a driving game- I mash the buttons something fierce in my panic, so fighting is really my strong point since I can keep punching and punching and kicking and hitting you with sticks until you die. I have never felt comfortable getting into playing though because of, well, history... There's this friend of mine (from long long ago who is not on LJ that I know of) who if she ever reads this will likely disown me, but she is my example for why people like me shouldn't play games with other people. She gets mad when she loses like I do, but she doesn't leave it at that. She will go on and on about you, your mother, your personal hygiene anything she can think of to abuse you into the ground for having the audacity to beat her. I'm not that bad, but I do take it pretty personally if you beat me even if I realize that's a completely irrational response. I behave badly, or if I don't I still stay upset for a long time, so my solution has always been to just not play. I figure I am happy enough watching other people play and supporting them (I try not to back seat too much, but sometimes that happens) but I stay on the side lines and just enjoy the aroma of competition. Competing with people makes me uncomfortable. I've gotten much better over the years (living with Crash has really taught me a lot about gaming and how to enjoy losing) so I am trying more and more and really enjoying it.
So now that I am playing Soul Calibur II (and I swear I am not hooked, despite the fact that I think the entirety of my dreams was like a big twisted Sci-Fi Hong Kong Smack Down) I am really getting a kick out of it. I don't think about it at all, I have no idea what button combinations actually mean something, I am mainly just smashing the ones I know do the most good and avoiding the ones I know don't seem to help me much, and I am seriously kicking ass and taking names! I got up to the next to last level on the Arcade thingy and Crash told me after it had been set on hard! So why was I ever afraid of it? I have no clue. I think I was worried it would make those nice boys who used to come to our house think I was a mean awful girl if I lost to them and got all bitchy about it, but as J keeps pointing out, it's trash talk and it's normal. But for me it's completely alien to my proper presbyterian upbringing! Nice girls don't go on about how much they hate you and would like to pin you in a corner and push their fire cannon into your chest until they see your mangled rotting heart burst out the other side still beating!!!! This is also not a wonderful parenting influence either... I keep it to "I KICK YOUR ASS!" when K is awake, but even then I am waiting to hear it piped back at me some day, probably when we're at another kid's birthday party in front of tons of other parents I don't know, you know, when you least expect it!
And now I will shift a little back toward parenting: I got one of those "pass it on" emails, you know the kind... I used to get a lot more of them back in the day, and sometimes I passed them on, but mostly I didn't. I've always gotten pissed off by chain letters. When I was a kid I liked them, they were fascinating and educational experiments to me. These days they are a giant waste of time or postage depending on what form they come in, but I read all of them anyway because I am also fascinated to see how they've mutated and changed in the infinite game of telephone that is the internet, and many of them amuse me greatly.
Today I got one from a friend who usually sticks to life affirming encouragement type things, which I never mind, and I read them all both for curiosity and because they are often a nice warm fuzzy to brighten my day. I haven't seen this one in a while, but I know I've seen before. I've edited out most of the "pass it on" bits, but feel free if you're a parent or parent or parent-sympathizer to cut it and paste it and send it on, post it, whatever. I left the little bit at the bottom that I am pretty sure was part of the original. I don't agree with all of it, but it's amusing.
This is so true!
To the survivors:
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's probably shouldn't have survived.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors! We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones.
Unthinkable.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.
We had friends! We went outside and found them.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth,and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was
unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
And you're one of them!
Congratulations. Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Must. not. do. journal.
Date: 2004-03-31 04:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-03 11:10 am (UTC)