A place for me to work stuff out and to post things that interest me.
Most of us can, if we choose,
make this world either a palace or a prison.
~Lord Avebury
I choose a palace.
~TKF
Do not let your fire go out,
spark by irreplaceable spark,
in the hopeless swamps of the approximate,
the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.
Do not let the hero in your soul perish,
in lonely frustration for the life you deserved,
but have never been able to reach.
Check your road and the nature of your battle.
The world you desired can be won.
It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
~Ayn Rand
The democratic society's mythology of equality with its
attendant erasure of difference is an impossibility
in an actual, lived sense.
Therefore, according to this view, this
imaginary erasure cannot achieve an
actual democracy, because a sense of
community can only come with the recognition of difference.
~Slavoj Zizek, as paraphrased by Catherine M. Soussloff
Links!
A brand new link! Check it out!
deviantART
I thought the place was very cool. Oh, and all you Alias fans, you can find a very nice wallpaper there--
or rather, here--and a gorgeous Evanescence one, too!
Watcher's Diary
Slayage; The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies
Convert just about anything
Comes in really handy when you want to convert fahrenheit to celcius and vice versa!
Links to 100s of free calculators online
Everything from your due date to how much a house payment would be to a regular calculator
Reference Guide to Chicago Manual of Style
Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Atlas & Almanac
Quotation Search Engine
Complete HTML True Color Chart
Epicurious Recipes
Inn Recipes; Recipes for all Occasions
JobStar-Resumes & Cover Letters Advice
Overstock.com: Up to 80% off most items
Ediblenature.com
Things My Girlfriend & I Have Argued About
(Trust me--you'll be laughing outloud!)
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Beyond the Invisible
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The tale of the world is like a tree.
...
Sturdily rooted in the past, the tale's branches spread out through the days that come. The many stories that make up its substance
unfold from bud to leaf to dry memory and back again, event connecting event like the threadwork of a spider's web, so that each creature of the world plays its part, understanding only aspects of the overall narrative, and perceiving, each with its particular talents, only glimpses
of the Great Mystery that underlies it all.
~Charles de Lint, Moonheart
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Thursday, December 15, 2005
Where Is The Center of the Universe?
I decided a while ago that blind self-centeredness is the common thread to a lot of the things that drive me crazy. There are the people that damn-near kill you by cutting you off in traffic because they want to be there and too bad if anyone else happens to be occupying that spot at the time. Sometimes they're talking on their cell phones at the same time or applying makeup or messing with their radio. Honestly, though, I don't think they are deliberately unfeeling of the havoc they cause. I think many people have no awareness of other people who might be occupying the space. In other words, it's not that they don't care--it simply never occurs to them that someone else might already be where they want to be. Blind self-centeredness.
At work, I deal all day with customers who feel that they are entitled to get credit for no reason other than they want it, to not pay their bill but still have service, to not have to have a deposit despite years of determinedly messing up their own credit, and to screw over the people that were stupid enough to trust them and put them on their acct. On the other hand, I have coworkers who think they can act like they're in kindergarten while they're at work and get furious if anyone even asks politely to turn it down. Blind self-centeredness.
Like I said, this is a long-held theory of mine but yesterday made me consider it all over again. I found myself amazed, yet again, at the willful disregard of others. I spent a total of 40 minutes or so helping a woman who had been trying to cancel her deceased father's acct since July. She'd called back after another agent left her a message that was unforgiveably callous and rude--and then actually documented her rudeness in the memos on the acct. "We tried to call you four times about canceling this and you didn't bother to call us, so you're not getting any money. Deal with it." (And for the record, we hadn't called her once about this according to our own records and that was the biggest part of the problem.) Mind you, customer service sucks, but this wasn't a case of forcing yourself to remain courteous in the face of nasty, cursing idiot who wants to take all of life's problems out on you (which granted, happens all the time). This was a nice person who never once raised her voice to me even after hearing that. (Frankly, she was much nicer to me than I might have been under the circumstances!) I mean, here was a woman who'd just lost her father and someone I work with spoke to her that way for no reason. The agent wasn't provoked or verbally-attacked--she was leaving the message on the woman's voicemail. Again, I don't think that if she'd actually stopped to think about it, she would have been nasty to someone that just lost a loved one and is now in a morass of red tape over the most mundane things. I think it never even occurred to my coworker that this wasn't some person that was trying to inconvenience her, in particular, with a genuine problem that might take a few minutes more than usual to straighten out. Not deliberately cruel, just blindly self-centered.
It just seems so pervasive sometimes. So many people walking through life completely and utterly convinced that they are the center of the universe and no one else matters nearly as much as what they want. They shout out in classrooms and work meetings, talking loudly to no one in particular. They announce often about how life isn't fair if they don't get exactly the same, in not just a little more than anyone else (even if they don't deserve whatever it is or, in some cases, even want it). They talk through movies at the theater. In crowds, on the street, in the mall, in restaurants, and at work--either on the cell or with their friends--they're so loud that they drown everyone around them in the details of their lives that you never cared to know. I could go (rant) on but you get the picture.
Of course, since I'm posting this in a public blog that I hope others will read, I must be fairly self-centered myself. But if I ever get to the point of ignoring everyone else's opinions, feelings, and physical space, I hope someone just thump me.
9:00 AM
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bravenet.com
