Rant VIII: The Reckoning

infamousalix

infamousalix

This is not okay, what these people were planning is not okay by any means.
Three people were planning on a mass murder t Halifax Shopping Centre today. Two people from Halifax (where I live) and one from Illinois. Police were tipped off about it and they arrested the women from Illinois at the airport, and the 17 year old. But sadly Randall Steven Shepherd committed suicide and was found dead when police arrived at his house.
Here's the part that gets me, I knew that guy. The one who committed suicide. The one who planned all of it. I FUCKING KNEW HIM. I knew that he was bullied and shit and I knew that he needed help and NO ONE FUCKING HELPED HIM! Not one single person helped him. He was taken out of school for a year because of bullies. He was lonely and miserable and depressed. AND NO ONE DID ANYTHING!
My son and I were supposed to go out to the mall today because we were gonna get something for Nick for Valentines Day, but I decided to stay in because I woke up late and wanted a lazy day. But what if they went through with it. What if the police were never tipped off. What if Danny and I were there?
WHAT IF HE ACTUALLY GOT THE HELP HE NEEDED? THIS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED!
I don't even know what to make of this. There are police still at the mall in case someone tries to follow through with it still, it's scary, it makes me angry that people weren't willing to help, that maybe he wasn't willing to take the help. I'm just shocked
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
At the same time, bullies have been around since kids were invented and not everyone goes apeshit and shoots up a mall. You can't drive yourself nuts with "what if's".
 
infamousalix

infamousalix

THIS IS BULLSHIT! SEVEN FUCKING KIDS DECIDED TO GO TO THE MALL WITH SLING SHOTS! SLING SHOTS!!! The mall was put under lockdown because of stupid stupid kids with slingshots. Because hey I guess its just sooooo funny to scare everyone and cause a fucking panic!
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH KIDS?!
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

stienman said:
Huh. I wondered where the boys had been all afternoon...
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Just remember, older kids sometimes feel the need to lash out in a cry for attention if there's a younger sibling that takes away part of the attention. You may not yet be familiar with this, but my experience as not-yet-a-father but having seen quite a few kids in my time, has...

...What? Why are people looking at me funny? :p
 
fade

fade

Staff member
I have this theory that a lot of recent violence comes from happiness. Or contentment, rather. It's kind of like the problem with having Christmas every day. Most of the people in this country live fat, happy lives, and that brews discontent. We thrive under confrontation, and some would rather seek it out at any cost rather than fall into obscurity. Not to mention that this desire is driven by nearly every fictional story we tell. People get restless waiting for the day they become a hero, and decide that there's nothing stopping them from being the villain. Pre WWII, there were too many real threats and adventures, for better or worse, to require one to manufacture a threat.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
fade said:
I have this theory that a lot of recent violence comes from happiness. Or contentment, rather. It's kind of like the problem with having Christmas every day. Most of the people in this country live fat, happy lives, and that brews discontent. We thrive under confrontation, and some would rather seek it out at any cost rather than fall into obscurity. Not to mention that this desire is driven by nearly every fictional story we tell. People get restless waiting for the day they become a hero, and decide that there's nothing stopping them from being the villain. Pre WWII, there were too many real threats and adventures, for better or worse, to require one to manufacture a threat.
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I've thought something similar from time to time - that there's a lack of perspective based on our frame of reference being that everything is just awesome all the time, so we define that as a baseline to which we are entitled by virtue of existing.

We live (generally speaking) in unprecedented safety and prosperity which warps our view of what is normal, and when something happens that dips our perceived contentment below that baseline (why am I not an all star popular hero person, why can't I get the girl I want like happens in all the movies) and we don't know how to deal with failure or difficulty - because for the last 30 years the priority has been on preserving our self esteem and not building our resilience or teaching us to learn from failure - we melt down.

"... an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." - Tyler Durden - Fight Club, 1999

"All I ever wanted was to fit in and live a happy life amongst humanity, but I was cast out and rejected, forced to endure an existence of loneliness and insignificance, all because the females of the human species were incapable of seeing the value in me." - from the preamble of the "manifesto" of Elliot Rodger, the 2014 Isla Vista mass shooter.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
The funny thing is that there is confrontation for those who want it. Be the best at something. Or at least be better than that guy. But that takes will and self-motivation. I don't think this generation lacks those things like old farts are wont to say. It's more that the earlier generations had external motivation. Like trying not to die.
 
Gared

Gared

fade said:
The funny thing is that there is confrontation for those who want it. Be the best at something. Or at least be better than that guy. But that takes will and self-motivation. I don't think this generation lacks those things like old farts are wont to say. It's more that the earlier generations had external motivation. Like trying not to die.
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The thing that gets me is that too often what I seem to hear is not "Oh man, that person has an awesome whatever-it-is. I want an equally awesome whatever-it-is!", what I hear is "Oh man, that person has a better whatever-it-is than I do, they don't deserve that, they should only be able to have what I have!" aka the "nerf that person" mentality instead of the "I should strive to be as good as that person" mentalitly.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Gared said:
The thing that gets me is that too often what I seem to hear is not "Oh man, that person has an awesome whatever-it-is. I want an equally awesome whatever-it-is!", what I hear is "Oh man, that person has a better whatever-it-is than I do, they don't deserve that, they should only be able to have what I have!" aka the "nerf that person" mentality instead of the "I should strive to be as good as that person" mentalitly.
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Welcome to the mind set of 85% of the political far left over here, unfortunately.

(referring to the *far* left, something that barely exists politically in the US but is unfortunately getting ever stronger here in Europe. Not moderate left who's saying "hey, let's not let people starve to death, mmkay", those guys are cool)
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

fade said:
The funny thing is that there is confrontation for those who want it. Be the best at something. Or at least be better than that guy. But that takes will and self-motivation. I don't think this generation lacks those things like old farts are wont to say. It's more that the earlier generations had external motivation. Like trying not to die.
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I've often felt that our societies have been so successful that we've lost sight of experiencing real hardship. Without it, we seem to work against each other or fail to work at all, with it we seem to come together and either survive or produce greatness.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
"It is only in the face of horror that you truly find your nobler selves. And you can be so noble. So... I'll bring you pain, I'll bring you horror, so that you may rise above it. So that those of you who survive this reign of hell on earth will be worthy of God's love." - Gabriel, Constantine (2005)
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Celt Z said:
We're not suggesting a Watchmen scenario, are we? I think Manhattan has gotten enough abuse lately.
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That's slightly different, that was bringing together two opposed factions by providing a third that (purportedly) imperils them both. This is more of a "Calvin's dad telling him to do things he hates because it builds character" thing.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Getting ready for a couple of corporate gigs where I'll be doing stand-up as well as improv. So I have been hitting some open mics to try and polish the routine. Last night's was at a little bar where I was the first one to show up, the sign-ups (supposed to be at 9 pm) happened at 10, and only about three people were in the room when we started. Since I was technically the "new guy" they made me go up first. Nobody gave a shit. Nobody was listening. No reaction whatsoever.

Look, open mics are there to help you hone your stuff. If you get no feedback the only thing open mics do is make you doubt your material no matter how strong it is. So here I am with stuff I know works because I've seen it, and I'm just eating it on stage. It was painful. Give this same stuff to more than a handful of people or people who give a shit and it would have been different.

I get off of stage and find there's a new person in the audience who showed up late. It was someone I'd been talking to about getting my foot in the door at the local big comedy club. Guess I can scratch that off my list.
 
Frank

Frank

Dave, any stand-up will tell you that shit happens. Also, the guy who showed up late, he knows how that works too. He ain't gonna hold it against you that there were 3 people in a room.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

That always sucks..I've played gigs before where the bar was totally empty. One business owner complained to us about our lack of a following. I told him "look, you put us up against Mardi Gras in Galveston. You think we can compete? That's your bad business sense right there."

Even with the justification, it feels bad, man. But it happens. All you can do is keep plugging away.[DOUBLEPOST=1424181897,1424181838][/DOUBLEPOST]
Frank said:
Dave, any stand-up will tell you that shit happens. Also, the guy who showed up late, he knows how that works too. He ain't gonna hold it against you that there were 3 people in a room.
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I figure that guy's going to see how you *handle* only 3 people in a room.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Frank said:
Dave, any stand-up will tell you that shit happens. Also, the guy who showed up late, he knows how that works too. He ain't gonna hold it against you that there were 3 people in a room.
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Oh I know. I've eaten it before. But it was spectacular. And the timing was just wrong.

I'm going to do one tomorrow night as well. We'll see how it goes.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
I've been somewhere like that before with booth talks for our company. You start talking to air, hoping the people wandering the conference floor will stop and listen. It's weird.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
fade said:
I've been somewhere like that before with booth talks for our company. You start talking to air, hoping the people wandering the conference floor will stop and listen. It's weird.
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Talking and doing a pitch is different than stand-up. But I feel you, man.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
In my life the highs are high and the lows are low. They just sent my wife's mom home from the hospital. She is there because of issues with her heart, circulation, and lungs. There's nothing more they can do. They have her on palliative care, not hospice, because anything could happen at any time.

One day you're on top of the world, the next day you're falling off the edge.
 
DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Sometimes it feels like I'm doing better than others based on their posts in various places, but I am not having a good time right now. The night in the hospital was the least of my problems. That's being taken care of with proper medication. I just feel buried, and every time I get close to finally pulling myself out of one hole, something happens to knock me right back down. First it was the car, then the medical scare, then the car again, and now work and bills. With help from family, I was able to get as caught up as I was willing to get and still have funds left over for food and gas. So there's daylight ahead there.

Which means it's time for work to kick me in the crotch. The disappearance of Girl B to replace Girl A was mandated by her parents. A barely-out-of-her-teens girl probably shouldn't be working a shift where one is by themselves nearly all the time, especially when the majority of the guests are gas field and construction workers. But that's another thread.

The bigger problem is constantly being shorthanded. Four people for three shifts means no one dares get sick or anything, or else the rest of us are screwed. The last couple of weeks I thought getting my two nights off in a row was a luxury. Now it's getting two nights off at ALL.

And it's taking a toll. Although my mood doesn't feel all that bad, I've been pretty much reduced to eat, sleep, work, drive to and from work. I get home and I fart around on the computer for a couple hours until it's time for bed. I don't have much motivation or energy to do anything else. Dishes pile up in the sink until my next day off. Only the most basic cleanup happens in the rest of the house. By the time I realize I need to take out the trash, it's when I'm on my way out the door for work, so it's not getting done then, and when I get home, I've got no energy to bother. I'm just slogging through day after day with no end in sight.

It feels like I'm keeping my spirits up. I keep telling myself my patience will be rewarded, but then I look at the schedule and see the next night off is so far away and there's nothing to do in between but sleep when I'm not here. And when there's no money, no reason to get out of bed if I'm not working.

I've got no ending to this rant, so I'll just hit post here...
 
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DarkAudit

DarkAudit

Oh, yippie. After a 12-hour shift coming up later tonight, snow is expected to start a couple hours before I'm done, then turn to freezing rain just as I'm ready to go home. Making the Sunday off even more useless than before. Another night stuck at home with nothing to do.

Fuck you, Elsa. Just. Fuck. You.
 
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