Back! And stuffed to the gills.

[silveradept]

It was a nice sequence of days to take off. Bookended by some troubles, like losing a glove on the way out and not noticing it until I was at my destination, and coming back, only to realize that I had locked my keys in my car. Luckily, a spare wasn’t too far away, so while the glove is probably gone, the keys were recovered. And then I spent the next six hours catching up on everyone. So now we’re done with that. Paper due tomorrow, plus I need to get some group work into high gear.

Taking thoughts to novel expressions, we have the global warming mug and the lost civil liberties mug, both of which pull a disappearing act when filled with a hot beverage. Also, the I Read Banned Books bracelet. Beyond that, something that should probably be in existence - Nerd Cliff Notes.

The kids are acting older these days. While most parents, I suspect, would not want to force on their kids the route of cutting off their penis and renouncing life, they are a bit concerned that the not-quite teenagers are beginning to act like the teenagers.

I know I’ve linked this before, but it still sums up things the best way I can think of - namely, high school is hell. At that particular point in our lives, it really is a popularity contest, kind of like LiveJournal can be.

I suspect the following article was printed/published simply because people are reacting to the word “Taser”. That said, epileptics having seizures are often treated like they're criminals. In other criminal behavior, vandals who smashed up a church are receiving "love baskets" from the congregants filled with goods. It’s definitely putting “turn the other cheek” into action, but I don’t think the judge will be so forgiving for them.

In other things that have religious overtones, the leader of the Christian Coalition quits - because he can't get them to think about helping the poor and the environment in addition to their anti-gay rhetoric. Sounds like an ostrich problem to me. J.C. himself said that the poor were supposed to be taken care of.

Another good reason to take profiling arguments with a grain of salt - 64-year old female bomber attacks Israeli troops. The person fitting the profile almost always changes to something else, often right about the time you think you have a handle on it. Regarding Iraq, Michael Moore tells us our only option is to get out and start the reparations. P! tells us this is why they hate us, George. Maybe W is getting to realize this, and has been strangely silent on the matter for a bit while he rethinks and decides he’s going to help bring about the will of the people by recalling the troops? We’ll see in the upcoming months.

Which reminds me. It’s nearly December already, isn’t it? Another year went by while I wasn’t really looking at it. One of these days I’m actually going to have to notice the time passing by. I’m sure that by letting it slip through my fingers like this, I’m missing out on something big. Anyway, it’s bedtime. I have stuff in the morning.

Comments

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

When I was a camp counselor I had to pull two 11 year olds out of the woods after I found them going down on each other.

::shudder::

[silveradept]

That's definitely more "adult" behavior that most would want to see out of their 11 year old children.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) 'had to'? Were they particularly annoyed or angry at you?

(*amuses self by reversing the situation, and imagining how adults going down on each other would react to an eleven-year-old interrupting them and pulling them out of the woods*)

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

The Management(TM) knew the probable reason they had gone into the woods, and it was left to me to put a stop to it. Of course, my boss just thought they were making out.

Which "they" are you referring to? The KIDS were scared out of their minds that they would never be let out of their houses again.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) Why did the Management(TM) choose for it to be put a stop to? *wonders about own grammar*

Ahh.

[silveradept]

The Management(TM) could potentially have had suit brought against them for being negligent in their oversight. I'm not sure how the law is worded, but there could have been statutory rape charges brought against one of the two. Or both.

Also, the general belief, regardless of the truth, that eleven-year old children are not at sufficient mental maturity to be engaging in sexual acts.

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

Because they're 11 years old and shouldn't be having sex at all, much less in the woods?

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) Here we get into the nebulous use of the word (or should that be 'the use of the nebulous word'?) 'shouldn't'.

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

Well, simply from the perspective of the camp, they would almost certainly be subject to extremely large lawsuits from one or both sets of parents for allowing it to happen.

From a moral and psychological perspective, if you honestly think 11 year olds are ready to have sex with each other, I think we have a much larger conversation about developmental psychology ahead of us.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) The first part: you have a point in that regard, though that's less a 'shouldn't' on the individuals' part but rather a 'couldn't afford to allow to happen' on the organisers' parts.

Perhaps. I don't know about 'readiness', but as long as they're aware of the consequences of their actions I tend to take the view that what two consenting people do with their bodies is their own business.

This probably cues the 'developmental psychology' part: if you make a claim amounting to humans of that age being intellectually inferior to older humans, I request that you back it up with physical evidence, rather than with psychological studies which could be subject to bias (note: psychological studies which used proper procedures to eliminate bias in the subject selection or testing process would count as interesting). Possibly an unreasonable request, but I'll try to mitigate that by stating that it's less to be viewed as an absolute request to be taken literally and more as a guideline for the sort of impartiality--or rather, objectivity--that I'll probably expect from your evidence to view it as significant.

*listens curiously*

[unspeakablevorn.livejournal.com]

your link to homeonthestrange.com in paragraph 4 is broken.

Vorn

[silveradept]

It shouldn't be. It follows the syntax of the earlier link to same. Yet, for some reason, it renders as a relative link rather than an absolute one. Very strange...

My source is right - I don't see the relative part. I don't get why it's doing that. Maybe a bug of some sort?

[unspeakablevorn.livejournal.com]

...ah, found it.

It's got smart quotes.

Vorn

[silveradept]

How do I fix it on my end, then? Because in my "edit journal entry" there's only one pair of quotes to mess with.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I was pointing out over IM, but there doesn't seem to be a way for SA to correct it for some reason.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Love the banned book bracelet.

Intersting article by P!, but we're discussing it via IM, so I won't ramble here about it.


The Tweens article...it's disturbing to me. Kids need to be kids, there's no reason for them to want to be adults too early. Heck, I see it with my niece who's only 3! Her parents give her things that I feel are very inapropriate for a three-year-old to have -- she has her own computer (with internet connection), her own personal travel DVD player, I'm sure by now they've given her her own phone...it's crazy. If we start giving the young kids all these things that are "perks" of being older..what's left for them to have? and what's next? Lowering the driving age to 14?

[sorcycat.livejournal.com]

I kinda see why it happens. Lot's of kids games area really about figuring out what life is like for adults. Little kids play house and doctor and pretend to be an adult. It's natural for a child to want to do what the adults do. Parents need to make sure to not add freedoms without supervision and responsibilities. I wonder if the internet connection is actually restricted somehow, either by technology or by policy (you can only go to websites listed in the bookmarks).

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

For my neice? I doubt it. If the parents want to watch an R rated movie, and she is still awake, she'll watch it with them.

I mean, I doubt she does anything with her internet connection other than whichever site it is that has games for pre-schoolers, but I still don' think she should have her own connection in her room. I think her parents should just let her use their computer supervised, as opposed to her being able to use her own computer at 2am.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I also think there's a big difference between playing at being adults through playing house, doctor, etc., and actually being adults early.


oh - speaking of - I thought you and SA would get a kick out of this: in the Sunday fliers, one of the stores had a big spread of "Role Playing toys" for kids :D Princess costumes, etc.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

M) *smiles at the penis-severing*

N) I strongly suggest looking at the 'kids acting older' and 'high school is hell' links together: the first has a sort of point, but the viewpoint is so biased that any useful information gets lost in idiotic notions and assumed concepts. Maybe the second isn't entirely correct in all regards, but it seems a much clearer view of the situation.

Speaking of which, said second link does definitely clarify some of my thoughts on high school.

*slowly turns down infuriation at adults' unconciously patronising attitutes*

*reads second linked page further* A very good article indeed.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

N) s/attitutes/attitudes/

[starkruzr.livejournal.com]

That's creepy, M.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

M) *shrugs* The way I see it, since I can't cut off this one, I might as well be happy that it's happening somewhere.

...though it wouldn't really help unless testicles were also severed.

Perhaps living vicariously through a random Buddhist monk isn't particularly useful, but it's better than nothing.