The Introspective Geek

Welcome to the brave new world of self absorbed, self centered asshats. Too many of us are so centered around their own needs and wants that people don't think about others anymore.

Perfect example. The other day, I was walking into our local Big Box store to pick up some items and a group of youth were hanging out right in the doorway. I could not pass them without having to push my way between them, so I stopped and politely said, "Excuse me."

Nothing.

I repeated my request, with an additional, "Could you please let me through?"

Still nothing.

Finally, "Excuse me, but could you move. I need to get into the store."

At which time, several members of the "youth of today" turned to me with bored expressions and finally took notice of me. "Use the other door," one of them said, and pointed clear across the parking lot to the other opening into the store, while the others snickered.

"That is very inconvenient to me," I stated, "Please just let me through."

"That is *incovenient* to US!" one sneared at me. "So take your ass other there!" and again pointed to the other door. "We were here first, so its YOUR problem and YOU need to use the other door!"

Well, since there were six of them, and one of me, and they were all bigger than me, I decided to use the other door. It just didn't seem worth the hassle, but it made me furious. And I did tell security when I entered the store. It was so rude and inconsiderate and just plain mean!

I have heard this excuse a lot lately. You don't like my use of vulgar language at loud volume in front of your children in a public place? It's YOUR problem, cause I have freedom of speech! You don't like the fact that I am letting my dog deficate on your yard? It's YOUR problem, cause my dog just does that. He's a dog. You don't think it is okay for me to throw trash on the street when the litter box is just a few feet away? YOUR the one with the problem...leave me alone. You don't think its okay that I didn't expect you to stop for the stop sign and ran into the back of your car? That's YOUR problem.... you shouldn't have stopped! Nobody stops at a stop sign! (I think my jaw hit the ground when I heard THAT one!)

I generally am always thinking about how my actions and words will affect others. I was raised to see the world as a larger community, of which I am a member with responsibilities to all.

Sometimes I feel very alone.

I weep for the furture.

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silvertoekee.livejournal.com

Ya people usually are jerks theses days and don't think of others. It's retarded that they kept playing the music even though the cops showed up. You would think they would have turned down the music once it gets late because other people might want to sleep. Stupid people.

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rubytuesday5681

ugh! that is so annoying! I have had to call the cops about loud music being played at parties in my neighborhood before. Also, my neighbor tends to work in his garage until really late with loud music on and has no conception of what time it is. I will usually give him until about 11 before I go over there and tell him it's time to turn the music down, which he usually does, without a fuss.
The problem with parties, though, is that it can be a pain in the butt to find the host or person responsible for turning the music down. So I don't usually bother. If it's a party and it's after 11 and I can hear the music in my house with the windows closed, I just call the cops. Also, I've been known to call the cops multiple times if the noise comes back or doesn't stop.
Bummer for you guys though, I hope fi was able to get some sleep and be okay at work the next day! It's awful getting up at the crack of dawn for work when you haven't slept well. :(

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silvertoekee.livejournal.com

fee_folay you are nicer then me saying excuse me first :). I use to me nicer but it changed the longer I lived in Los Angeles and had to deal with jerks. LOL I would have plowed my way through them like a steam truck while yelling out excuse me's and not caring if I stepped on toes.

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rubytuesday5681

I'm sorry you had that experience, that must have been very upsetting. :(

Sounds to me like what those teenagers were doing was "loitering", which is illegal in my community. If something like that happened to me and I couldn't easily get store security, I would have been well within my rights to call the cops. And that is probably what I would have done.

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tafl-hols.livejournal.com

I have the advantage of being larger than most folk, so I don't have to deal with much of that sort of thing. Occasionally there'll be one or two really stoopid gits who have to learn the hard way.

I think it's sad that the only folks who don't have problem with louts like that are those of us physically capable of breaking them in short order. I can only wonder about the parenting involved in helping create that much of teh stoopid.

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tafl-hols.livejournal.com

I broke one set of neighbors of that sort of thing in short order. They played loud music and engaged in drunken revelry until 2:30 am. I dozed through much of it, only waking up for particular loud outbursts.

Come 6 am when I got up, I cranked some nice heavy metal up real loud with the speakers aimed at them. They got to enjoy it with hangovers.

My response to their complaint involved pointing out that any time they had their music cranked late into the night, they could expect more music cranked real early in the morning. If I can't sleep easily because of them, they wouldn't be sleeping easily in return--I figured that was only fair.

Never happened again during the time I lived there.

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See, I like that approach, but I don't have a speaker system.

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saffronhare.livejournal.com

In balance, I'm happy to report a very different experience with my neighbors. Next Door Folk were having a bit of a Friday night gathering, which went pretty late into the night and we had to get up earlier than usual on Saturday morning.

Noisy conversation and thumping music kept us awake for a while, and I finally pulled on some pants to go knock on the door and make eye contact with a friendly request to turn down the music or bring it inside off their porch.

They're young, and it wasn't a particularly rowdy party. Just...gah. Anyway, I couldn't have been happier with the little conversation and how quickly they adjusted the party. To top it off, they came by this afternoon to apologize.

So, while it sure can suck a lot, I do have some hope for humanity. Wishing you good rest tonight!

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I might have tried to talk to them, but none of the adults speak English, and I wasn't going to try to translate through the kids. The whole thing could have gone badly due to bad translations and miscommunication. Safer to just have a professional deal with it.

I'm glad you had a positive experience. In my previous neighborhood, we had some college-age guys across the street, and they sometimes had late parties, but if we asked them to quiet down, they were WONDERFUL about it. Very nice guys. They'd look out for our dog, keep an eye on our house while we were out, and they actively THANKED us for asking them to quiet down their parties instead of calling the cops. But then, they weren't playing music nearly THAT loud as the ones last night.

So yeah, some people are good about it.

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georgeodowd.livejournal.com

This is where a nice set of operatic arias (with lots of high notes) come in handy ;)

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I can't sing opera, but I'm a Mezzo Soprano who can BELT. :D

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georgeodowd.livejournal.com

Ugh, I have had so many similar experiences from my apartment-dwelling days. I consider myself very lucky that my house, while located on a small lot in a residential neighbourhood, is very quiet 95% of the time. In the year and a half I've lived there, I've only had noise issues once - from people in the apartment complex next door having very loud conversations in the wee hours. They quieted down before I woke up enough to call the police, which is lucky, because I usually get so worked up from having to make the call that I can't go back to sleep. Noise rudeness fail!

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georgeodowd.livejournal.com

There you go! :D

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Um. You're way nicer than I am. Im a bitch - dont care if there were 6 of them - when they didnt move the first time, I'd have told them to get the fuck out of my way, and shoved through. I've done it before.

Parents need to start beating their children again

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"Parents need to start beating their children again"

Please do not say things like that on my Livejournal.

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Yes, I am a nice person - mostly. LOL! I am also teeny weeny, so physical force is not really an option, unless I am facing off with a Lillipudlian. And my parents raised me without beatings, but I think I turned out pretty well. (Though I will admit to being swatted on the bottom a couple of times.)Parents certainly do need to start holding children accountable for their choices. I see too many get away with things because parents are more worried about their children "liking" them then they are about being a "parent." Children generally appreciate boundaries and rules - it makes them feel more secure.

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I guess I am pretty lucky where I am now... no big issues with the neighbors. But I grew up on "Frat Row" so I am well acquainted with loud music at all hours. The frat boys used to drag their stereo equipment out to the street and blast it to the whole neighborhood while they got drunk and puked up all over the lawn. One time they set another neighbor's house on fire with a home made firecracker. Another time, one got drunk and fired bullets into a neighbor's home. He was aiming at some imagined attacker.

Ah Frat boys....what would we do without them.

I have had to cops show up at previous neighbor's and move the family out because the ex was threatening to come by do a drive by, killing everyone. Unfortunately, the whole row of apartments looked exactly the same, so the whole street was worried he's get the address wrong and shoot up the wrong house.

And I did have the hot/cold love affair next door, where it was either the bump of the bed against the wall accompanied by loud moans and screams, or it was the loud yelling accompanied by his being locked out and all his possessions being tossed out the window!

Reality TV right at your front door!

Humans can be so entertaining. No wonder Spock finds them confusing.

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I'm glad to hear some people are good about it. I tend to get cynical sometimes because so many people just don't see to care how their behavior affects others. I suspect we, as a species, are headed for some of the most difficult times and most complex issues that have ever faced humanity - and I worry that without mutual respect, support and understanding, we will not be able to overcome what may happen.

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I'm sorry, but unruly, rude and undisciplined kids like that deserve to get the crap kicked out of them- be it by their parents or another kid that they mouth off to the wrong way

Too many kids today believe they are entitled to everything just because they merely exist

A little humility never killed anyone

I wasn't beat as a child, but let me have mouthed off to ANYONE like that - even a stranger - and I'd have gotten a swift kick in the ass

99% of kids today have absolutely no respect whatsoever

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I've worked with children, and my mother was a teacher, and I can say that typically, it's the UNRULY children who HAVE been beaten. You didn't say "spanking," which is not the same thing. You said BEATING. I'm sorry, but there's nothing remotely forgivable about kids getting "the crap kicked out of them" by parents and guardians. That sort of language is reprehensible to me, as are those actions.

And as someone who has seen, first-hand, the effects of a child being BEATEN, and who already asked you to please not speak of child-beating on my journal, I'm now telling you to remove yourself from my LJ, and go fuck yourself. I've got no tolerance for that sort of bullshit, and I pity any children you might have.

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Eh, you can go fuck yourself too - clearly you have never paid an ounce of attention to the things I have said both here and on my livejournal. I spent 15 years raising 4 children, who I never ONCE had to even RAISE MY VOICE TO, let alone anything else - you have no idea what kind of parent I will be.

Never once did I say beat the kid to a pulp, beat them where they bleed, or beat them to where they're physically injured. I HAVE been beaten like that. BY MY PARENTS. I never said I advocated for that. EVER. But a little fucking discipline never killed anyone. Kids ARENT disciplined today - and I feel (as someone who's ALSO worked with kids for years upon years - and again, raised FOUR) it wouldn't be a bad thing.

Parents have absolutely NO leverage today. All I even had to hear as a child was I might get the paddle if I didnt stop. Sure as shit, I stopped right then and there. I think, in all my childhood years, I got it ONCE.

To kids today, it's an idle threat - an idle threat which they counter with: "Do it, I'll call the cops"

Yeah, that's totally respectful of your parents, your elders and the society you're allowed to live in.

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Oh and you can go ahead and delete me if that makes you feel awesome - but me, I don't take orders from anyone. So go do it yourself.

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Beating does not equal discipline. You said BEATING. AFTER I asked you to stop talking about it. If you had stopped talking about it when I asked you to stop, then that would have been the end of it. You kept talking about it, not considering my reasons why I might have asked for you to stop, and that crossed the line. I have certain hard-limits on what I consider acceptable, and you hit one of them. I asked you to stop, and you didn't. Why is it so hard for you to respect someone when they say, on their own journal, "Please stop"?

Good for you that your kids didn't "need" to be beaten. I'm sorry that you were subjected to that. Clearly, your own experiences made you accepting of the idea that beating children is okay.

Now, if you're done, go away. There's nothing further for you here.

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