“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” is really really true!

Alright, everyone, time for a little life advice from the Fortress!

A year ago yesterday, I was walking around my neighborhood, when I passed a man walking his small white dog, when for no reason the stupid dog bit me on the back of my thigh. Ouch! Man didn’t seem to give a shit, and I forgot to get his name or info. So, as I mentioned briefly in last year’s 100 Days of Summer recap, I spent the following week in absolute panic that the dog had given me rabies or something. Yeah, I know, stupid thing to be panicked about, despite everyone and all information I looked up essentially telling me how there was like no chance. Only got out of the panic a week later when I saw the dog being walked again (rabid dogs are dead within a couple of days of symptoms, the only time they can spread it, so this dog had to of course be alright). Didn’t snap out of the panic right away. It took me another couple days to slowly come down from it.

And that week was seriously miserable. Regardless of it being for a stupid reason, I was still panicked, still absolutely filled with fear. And let me tell you something. Fear seriously fucks you UP. You can’t think. You lose your marbles. No amount of logical reasoning showing you not to be scared will snap you out of it. Pretty much just has to go away on its own after a while. Anything I had been thinking about or planning up until that asshole little dog bit me had gone out of my mind. Pretty much all I could think about was this dog bite and my irrational fear of infection.

And that’s why fear itself is a worthwhile thing to be afraid of! I sometimes find there are events or possible events in the future that I think “oh, wow, I’m going to be soooo scared!” For example, if I ever get pregnant. Pregnancy is pretty goddamn scary. Aside from all the crazy shit involved with it even when it’s perfectly normal, if I’m ever pregnant, I would be soooooo terrified! Scared waiting to find out if pregnant. Scared during labor. Scared waiting for labor at any moment. And then of course the most terrifying thing of all for which pregnancy is just the opening, parenthood! Ack!

So I would say, well, don’t be scared, but it can’t be helped. That’s another reason to fear it, since it’s hard to avoid. Education may help, in that fear preys on ignorance, since not knowing what to do in a given situation only increases the fear, while knowing what to do keeps it somewhat at bay, usually.

And your brain is on your side anyway. It gets bored with fear after a while, provided the fear brings nothing new to be fearful about, and logical reasoning grows back. So while you can’t avoid being fearful, because, well, shit happens, you can at least be ready for it and knock it out quickly. Or at least manage until it passes.

Happy Fifty-Fifty!

This has been Day 50 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 10.

Ooooh, tropical!

Looks cold. But what a view!


On the other hand, this place looks HOT! And DRY! I want a cold beverage just looking at it.

Pretty waterfalls. I’ve heard they shouldn’t be chased.

Flat grassland is flaaaaaaaaat.

Lighthouse.

Wow! Mangrove swamp. Might be gators.

Ah, a pretty sunset over a lake.

Big tall trees are biiiiig and taaaaaaall!

Go ahead. Try to breathe. That’s right. You can’t. You lost the ability when you saw this picture!

Mmmmm, pointy.

Woods and a little waterfall. Nice.

Okay, just posted 12 pretty pictures. What for?

Here’s the thing. The locations of those pictures? Respectively, they are…

Hawaii
Alaska
California
Maryland
Kansas
Maine
Florida
Minnesota
California… again
Colorado
Arizona
Virginia

Yup. Bunch of very different climates, geographies, topographies, landscapes, people, cultures, etc.

And they’re all still part of the United States of America!

Happy Independence Day!

(yes, this was corny, I know)

This has been Day 42 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 10.

True, baseball and hockey are also guilty of low scoring games and long periods of nothing really happening. But hockey is on ice and baseball involves bats. That gives them the edge.

Soccer… eh.

But in any case, the USA still better fucking win!

This has been Day 34 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 10.

Tried to go to my local one today after work, only to find it had closed at 5pm. Normally, this one stays open until 9pm Monday through Thursday but Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, only until 5pm. Or rather, Sunday is only open until 5pm during the school year, and is closed in the summer. These hours are long compared to those of some other local libraries, which close at 5pm every weekday and are closed weekends.

You know, not sure what universe these libraries think they’re in, but most people are at work during those hours. Libraries like to complain they may be dying because of Borders and Barnes and Noble being there, but the thing is, Barnes and Noble is open until 11pm. It closes six whole hours after the regular workday ends. That’s actually convenient for people. Libraries can’t be open only during hours where very few people can come and complain that hardly anybody is coming to the library.

And the thing about reduced hours in the summer? I’d assume it’s because they’d want to keep later hours during the school year for students who need it for studying and work. That makes sense. But the thing is, even students can’t do the before-5pm thing. Depending on age, might need their parents to take them if it’s far enough, and parents get off at work at 5pm. Also, may be stuck in after school activities or summer camps.

Library should also be there for students who want to do non-school related studying. It’s supposed to be an autodidactic playground. But inconvenient hours make that difficult.

I know, I know. Elephant in the room here is that, well, there’s the internet now and you can find more information on it than in any library. Hell, Wikipedia alone could replace half the Dewey Decimal System! Of course, that’s assuming the people wanting the library for info actually have access, or at least free enough access, to a functional computer with internet access. Even this day and age, not everyone does, either because of low income or low age. Or high age and still thinking computers are the devil’s playthings.

Or in the case of novels, being unwilling or unable to pay for them yet also unwilling and unable to find an illegal online copy somewhere. Or too recent to be free on Google Books.

And libraries have free WiFi anyway.

So there’s free books and free information. Just sucky hours.

This has been Day 33 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 10.

SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!

I’m so fucking sick of hearing about childhood obesity everywhere I look. It’s all “oh noes, kids are fat, kids are unhealthy, aaahhh!”

Alright, some of them might be above a healthy weight. So what do you do about it? Maybe they go play in the park a little longer. Maybe they eat some healthier foods. In any case, maybe the adults so involved with these kids’ lives should give the kids healthier options if they aren’t already. Maybe help them (and set an example by doing it themselves) develop healthier habits in general.

Of course, since when do adults actually take personal responsibility for helping young people do better? In ways other than finger pointing and berating the youth, that is. That’s right, they don’t, so they blame everything else they can. So the blame gets put on what mascots fast food chains are using or even, stupidly enough, whether the cartoons they’re watching depict fat characters! (Not to mention the slimming down of Santas I mentioned a couple years ago.)

Now there are so many ways to go here. One could be, as Matt so awesomely pointed out a couple weeks ago, rapidly diminishing activities available for kids, on top of too short lunch breaks to eat disgusting food, and, as Alex mentioned in the comments there, the cutting back or elimination of recess. So, basically, adults are doing everything they can to keep kids in a lifestyle that makes them unhealthy, and they blame THEM for it!

Or they make this yet another opportunity to attack kids’ choices of entertainment, constantly picking on the characters they like or the video games they play. As if a character having the tiniest bit of potbelly is as bad as the character is smoking. Hey, idiotic adult “logic” says kids will want to smoke if a cartoon is doing it, so it totally means a kid will want to get fat if a cartoon is doing it, right? Because being fat is totally a specific activity as opposed to just how your body looks.

Or there’s the thing about wanting to ban Ronald McDonald or stop airing fast food ads early in the day. Because this makes kids want unhealthy food. You know, if the kids are young enough for something like Ronald McDonald to appeal to them, then they’re young enough that they aren’t exactly going out and buying the Happy Meals themselves. Instead, some ADULT is buying it for them. People are worried about advertising these things to kids, but kids aren’t even the ones making the purchase. Take away the ads, and they’ll still wind up with a Happy Meal because their parents got a craving for Big Macs. And McDonalds is sort of everywhere (I can think of at least five within a couple miles of me), so it’s not like kids would be unaware it exists even if the ads went away.

Not to mention that whether the ads or clown are there, that does nothing about the parents that feed fast food to their kids on a daily basis, whether or not they themselves eat it. Why? Because they’re so afraid if they give kids anything else, they won’t eat. Which ends up a self-fulfilling prophecy, because when that’s all the kids are given, it will be all they’ll eat, since anything else would be foreign to them. Part of the stupid fucking myth that burgers, fries, hot dogs, and pizza are all kids will eat, that they’d rather die than eat a vegetable. Which, if I may go on a tangent for a moment, I always found insulting when I was a kid. The TV shows and ads had kid characters who hated or complained about vegetables, usually broccoli or brussels sprouts, as if this was supposed to appeal to me. It didn’t. I’ve always liked vegetables. And I resented these adult-created media aimed at kids always deciding for me that, as a kid, these are the foods I’m supposed to like and not like.

In fact, that’s part of this, too. Many McDonalds ads aimed at kids. Certain cereals aimed at kids. Kids’ menus containing only unhealthy options. Adults have created an unhealthy culinary culture for kids, telling them that, as kids, these are the sort of foods that are for them. I mean, just stroll down the cereal aisle. The less healthy more sugary cereals are the ones advertised for kids, and the healthier, ultra fortified ones are aimed at adults. Local grocery store used to even label the different sections of the aisle “Kids Cereals” and “Adult Cereals”. Which doesn’t make a lick of sense. Until Crispix comes with a free bottle of Jack Daniels and a Hustler, then you can tell me it’s an adult cereal, but lacking that, I think it’s just food. So, basically, in the ever so pointless division of which foods are for adults and which are for kids, it is kids that get left with and encouraged to eat exclusively the ultra sugary high fat crap. And the adults are blaming the fucking kids for it!

I’m not saying any foods need to be hidden or banned. Well beside the point. But when you give someone a powdered donut, and they eat the donut, don’t call them a pig for eating a donut.

And, of course, there’s one more interesting question here. Why this? Why the concern over childhood obesity at all? I mean, for one, adults have waaaay higher obesity rates than kids. And even some of the people of all ages who get called fat or obese really aren’t all that big. Yet why is kids’ body image suddenly everyone’s concern? Well, there’s of course the fact of an ageist society that kids are considered public property. But there are so many other things out there harming kids. Diabetes. Muscular dystrophy. Cancer. Hell, even tooth decay, which would give insecure adults yet another reason to attack kids’ eating habits (their diet consisting entirely of foods those adults gave them, of course). Why obesity? Well, answer is obvious. You can see it. Literally. Obesity means kids’ appearances aren’t what adults think they should be. So, really, while there are still the health concerns, sure, this all still comes down to child objectification. Fat kids aren’t pleasing to the public eye, so they must be ridiculed and shamed, all under the guise of encouraging good health. Yeah, that’s totally how you make people healthy. Not through assistance with creating a healthier lifestyle, or anything that’s actually respectful. Instead, insult the hell out of them and make them hate themselves. And wonder why they develop eating disorders later. I want to punch you assholes in the face so much.

And, honestly, any adult who thinks kids should be eye candy should instead be expecting an invitation from Chris Hansen to have a seat.

This has been Day 29 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 10.

My dad is an asshole and so is yours.

Alright, maaaybe there are some who aren’t assholes, but that’s a pretty big leap of faith.

I’ve made a total of three anti-Mother’s Day entries yet no anti-Father’s Day ones. The main reason for it has been laziness, that when it rolled around I never got around to getting an entry put together. One might think it’s because I hate Mother’s Day more, but that’s not the case at all.

There’s an important difference between the days, and therefore in my view of them. I mentioned Mother’s Day has this idea that it is still 1955, that motherhood consists entirely of endless housework and being annoyingly overemotional, and that we should be celebrating this idea. That it’s mom who deals with every little thing about the kids and knows everything about them.

Father’s Day, and the traditional view of fatherhood, however, goes totally a different direction. Dads aren’t supposed to be involved with or to know anything about their kids at all. What’s their job? Grilling steaks. Maybe fixing cars. Oh, and if you’re a boy, teaching you to shave.

In my experience, yeah, dad was the one who did the grilling and the car stuff. But actual interaction with him has pretty much always ever been superficial, mostly quoting The Simpsons or comiserating about the Redskins. Beyond that, well, I grew up terrified of my dad. He had a major temper and drank all the damn time. He’s still like that. He always insulted us and had no real interest in anything about us. In general, he’s a spineless weakling when it comes to dealing with people, and as such gets walked on by everyone, never sticks up for himself, and sure enough, my sister and I had to suffer for it, since, well, that’s what happens when you’re unfortunate enough to be the ones someone like that actually does have authority over.

I could go on, but I don’t want to write it any more than you want to read it. This is far from the sort of stuff that I’d want to sit here today and act like is so wonderful. Yet at the same time, what I went through was fairly mild compared to very very many. I know a girl who was treated brutally by her dad. She’s well into her 20’s now, and what’s her relationship with her dad? Does she speak to him? Uh, yes, yes she does. She sees him. They do stuff. As if there was never anything bad beforehand at all. And that’s even with her knowing full well she was abused, as opposed to the sickening many who refuse to see what their parents did to them as abusive at all.

While obviously I don’t know what all she did to maybe resolve these issues, I find the readiness to forgive parents for mistreatment to be very bothersome. Is there anybody else who could physically assault you for nearly two decades of your life, that you would readily forgive and decide that having a good relationship with them is more important than acknowledging that they had no respect for your bodily autonomy? That it’s always excused with “that’s how they were taught children were raised”. Which is the lamest, stupidest fucking excuse ever.

And that’s another little traditional stereotypical thing about dads. That when the kids are misbehaving (which usually just means having more fun than adults are comfortable with), it’s the dads that must come in with the force, the coercion, the booming yelling. Because apparently, part of being a man is attacking people a quarter of your size. And that, along with grilling some chicken, changing the oil, and building a bookcase, is what Father’s Day is all about celebrating.

Now for the dads who don’t follow that stereotype, who actually are involved with the kids on a more real personal level, have patience, have trust, hey, that’s good. You aren’t the aforementioned asshole dads.

Yet Father’s Day, like Mother’s Day, doesn’t really care whether any specific parents have truly earned that title, whether they’ve used that position for good or evil. Just celebrates all of them. Which, honestly, is irresponsible and dangerous. Don’t tell me I have to honor my dad today. If you want to honor your own dad, that’s your business. But my dad’s an asshole, I’m not calling or visiting him today, and I’m certainly not interested in your judgmental gasping at this, thinking this makes me a bad person. Fuck him and fuck you too.

This has been Day 28 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 10.

So here’s my letter to them. Enjoy!

Dear Allstate,

Recently, I was shopping around for car insurance. I checked several companies, but Allstate was not one of them. Why? Because Allstate feels the need to run magazine ads spreading disgusting lies about teenagers missing parts of their brains. I will not do business with a company like that. As a youth rights advocate, these sort of ad campaigns work against everything my colleagues and I are giving our lives to work for. Spreading these negative stereotypes about teenagers not only doesn’t make your insurance policies or your company look any more appealing even to a neutral observer, but these widespread beliefs cause real harm to young people. Telling people that teenagers can’t think for themselves not only causes teens to be mistrusted and prevented from gaining experience they’ll need to have in adulthood, but also it contributes to them being mentally and physically abused. When you spread the idea that a group of people are mentally inferior, people will treat them that way. By running these “teen brain” ads, Allstate is stating they are fine with teenagers being treated as less than human. As such, as long as the company chooses to promote itself this way and without an apology, I will never buy an Allstate insurance policy and will do all I can to persuade others not to.

Sincerely,
Katrina Moncure
National Youth Rights Association

Do the same. Go here.

This has been Day 7 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 10.

But songs don’t have to have come out within the past two weeks for you to get sick of their constant, constant, mindnumbing play. Hell, they don’t even have to have come out in the past two decades.

That’s right, this is about even classic rock songs that radio stations play the living shit out of. While any one of these songs might get fewer plays on a given day than any of the aforementioned brand new pop stuff, it’s also worse in a way because many of the overplayed pop songs will disappear without a trace in a month or so, while Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” and Steve Miller’s “Joker” and Journey’s “Any Way You Want It” have been getting played sooo much consistently for many many years.

Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” I’m sick of, too. It’s considered this brilliant classic that everyone is supposed to love, and while I’m certainly not against the song itself, any given classic rock station will play it at least five times a day. Same with Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Same with Rolling Stones’s “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.

I mentioned “Hotel California” in the title, but really, I’m sick of just about anything by the Eagles at this point, save for some of their songs which get played less often, such as “In the City”. But I swear, “Tequila Sunrise” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and even “Witchy Woman” are all pretty much running together to me. And the Eagles are one of those genre-spanning bands, like Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Toto, and others, where if you’re not hearing “Edge of 17″ or “Barracuda” or “Hold the Line” AGAIN on the damn classic rock station, you’re hearing them on the light rock station. Or the mix station.

Yet as sick as we get of these songs, whenever we’re out with friends and we’re listening to the radio, and one of these songs comes on, some of them will act like “OMG, I haven’t heard this in forever!” and be all singing along to it. Of course, most people in these situations are quite drunk so probably to be expected.

But are all classic rock stations under the impression that this is what all their listeners are doing? More like most listeners are alone in their cars, stuck in rush hour traffic, banging their heads against the steering wheel because the stupid station is AGAIN playing Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll” after AGAIN playing Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” after AGAIN playing Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” after AGAIN playing Kansas’s “Dust in the Wind”.

Classic rock stations don’t even have any excuse for this. At least the pop stations sort of exist for the very purpose of playing the newest songs over and over, and as said, that set of songs is different a month later. Classic rock stations have like 40 goddamn years worth of music they could be playing. Instead, they pick out maybe 20 different classic bands and buy their best-of albums and pick out no more than five songs off each of those albums, and that’s their station’s whole playlist. -_-

I mean, okay, these songs are “great” and all. For people old enough to have been around when they first came out, it’s supposed to be some kind of great nostalgia, bring them back to their youth. Except that doesn’t exactly do that. The songs get overplayed and any nostalgia they could have provided is long gone. As does any sense of how “great” these classics are. And these classics become just as tiresome in our minds as the newer pop stuff, thus to us Pink Floyd might as well be Pink.

This has been Day 1 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 10.

DAY
100

Ah, another crazy ass summer full of the usual mixture of lulz and fail. Let’s review.

Got off to a slow start. On Day 7, for the hell of it, drove up to Gettysburg and drove around the battlefield a bit, and climbed on some historically significant rocks.

Day 8 I ate some awesome dumplings.

Day 10, trying to empower and embiggen (yup) the youth rights blogosphere so I started Youth Blog Tuesday on the forums. (I’ll see you in the September 1 installment!)

Day 14, went to the movies and saw Up. Movie about an old widower who somehow makes his house airborne with BALLOONS and flies to Venezuela to visit some waterfall, only for him and the stow-away eight-year-old to get back to the US at the end somehow, though never any mention how he got off the charges of reckless endangerment, crossing international borders illegally, transporting a child across international borders, etc. Cute movie.

Day 20, with the form filled out and my birth certificate, went over to the post office, got my picture taken, and was told my passport should be mailed to me in a few weeks. Win!

Day 21, woke up to some thumping on the sliding glass door. It was a bunny that kept leaping at the door and bumping its little head. Hahahaha.

Day 22, checked out the Washington Ethical Society after having read up on them a couple months earlier, like church but without all the God and thou-shalt-not crap, just the whole doing-good-things part. Seems nice. Then hopped on metro to Smithsonian American History Museum, because I went last March and meant to go back to see stuff I didn’t see before it closed then. Then went home because last board meeting of the year was that evening, when we were to vote on Justin’s position paper amendment so NYRA would officially oppose corporal punishment in school. Alex abstained because he has some problem with us even having position papers, but not enough board members were in attendance for it to go anywhere, so we waited several hours for Chip to get off the airplane and join us, and Eric and Jackie never showed up. Chip eventually showed up, voted, and the amendment passed in time to get on the ballot, and we promptly removed Eric and Jackie from the board for attendance violation and appointed Jeff and Steve. Haha, what a twist!

Day 28, spoiled sauteed mushrooms are spoiled. FAIL!

Day 29, went to WES again and afterwards had lunch with their Young at WES group. Nice people. Then hung out at Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring, which is a pretty park full of lots of plants. Then I got home to get a call from Stefan that we decided to advance NYRA by hiring a development director to do all the fundraising stuff that Alex has been failing at. Whoa! Maybe I should continue with this WES thing since it seems to be causing things to happen with NYRA!

Day 31, ZOMG, NYRA-SEFL has filed their lawsuit against West Palm Beach! They rock sooo hard!

Day 32, ZOMG, Savana Redding won her Supreme Court case 8-1!!! She rocks sooo hard!

Day 33, ZOMG, Jason Pollock’s pro-youth film “The Youngest Candidate” premiered at the LA Film Festival!!! He rocks sooo hard! (w00t! Youth rights awesomeness hat trick!)

Day 37, NYRA board conference call interview with potential development director who sounds like Ben Stein, while eating Ben and Jerry’s “Mission to Marzipan” which is OMGWTFBBQ delicious!!!

Day 42, on Independence Day, I became the proud holder of a US Passport! I can go anywhere!!!

Day 43, outdoor gathering with the WES people, played kickball, played too hard and was unable to walk well for the following week. And LOL at trying to explain Facebook to old people.

Day 44, dentist, got told to get my wisdom teeth out though I don’t want to. Told them I might kind of think about it. Fail unnecessary surgery is fail.

Day 47, oooh, sushi made with brown rice is yummy, and so much more yummy being cheap because it’s happy hour.

Day 49, looked at potential new phones, got some Dairy Queen, wandering around neighborhood, oh look some old guy walking a dog… OUCH!! Fucking dog bit me! Bit me on the back of the leg. WTF?! Oh, shit, jerk didn’t give me any info, bite is bleeding.

Day 50, well, lovely way to spend the goddamn Fifty-Fifty! Had to go to a walkin clinic to get bite checked out and got a tetanus shot (FAIL!) and prescribed some antibiotics I had to take for the following ten days. Oh, and there’s the teeny tiny risk of rabies maybe?

Day 51, oh shit, did that dog have rabies?!

Day 52, oh shit, did that dog have rabies?!

Day 53, oh shit, did that dog have rabies?!

Day 54, oh shit, did that dog have rabies?!

Day 55, oh shit, did that motherfucking dog have rabies?!

Day 56, wait, domestic dogs in this country don’t have rabies, and there’s that dog being walked again, if he were rabid when he bit me, he’d have been dead by now.

Day 57, went to see Half Blood Prince. WTF?! Harry never flirts with some diner chick and the Death Eaters never burn down the Burrow! Whatever, that night went to see Stone Temple Pilots! Win!

Day 59, started reading Deathly Hallows for the second time, coincidentally two years to the day from when it came out and thus the first time I started reading it!

Day 63, went tubing on the Potomac with the WES folks, and got epic sunburn, gaaahhh!!!

Day 68, chop chop chop, making salad!

Day 69, sizzle sizzle sizzle, sauteing mushrooms. Then later that night, off to Alex’s house and saw Ralph and Ivy, then came Jason, Alex, Justin, and Lindsay, and we all played Apples to Apples!

Day 70, NYRA ANNUAL MEETING!!! ZOMG, we’ve got the NYRA-SEFL guys and Steve Ross and Julian and Pablo and an assload of other awesome people! Flip cams galore! Jeff gave opening remarks, then Heather spoke, then Steve spoke, then Youth Venture guy, then we went to Chipotle, then the War on Kids movie, then Alex reads the annual report (and you know what that included ), and we headed back to Alex’s house while awaiting election results, where we ate hot dogs and my salad and mushrooms. Then results were announced and I was reelected, and we gained Brian Lombrowski and Jackie Ferro, but lost Chip. Oh, well, evening was fun. And I had to make four trips to the Twinbrook station picking up and dropping off people, hehe.

Day 71, second day of awesome annual meeting: CAFETY guys Brian and Eric talked about how gulag schools are bad mmmkay, Lindsay said the drinking age is bad mmmkay, two SSDP girls talked about chapter formation, and some way through that Justin and I ducked out to go pick up pizzas from Bertucci’s, since I offered to take care of the pizzas because I felt we should do better than Dominos. Came back with pizzas only to be met with mobs from Students for Liberty and Students for Democratic Society, who ate all our pizza and left barely any for the actual NYRAnians. And they didn’t even stick around after the debate to find out more about NYRA or anything. Oh, yeah, there was a debate, between those two groups. It was all hyped up, and even though Students for Liberty was the clear winner, they both sort of failed. It’s okay, because the sheer awesomeness we know as NYRA of Southeast Florida did their presentation next, all about their epic curfew battle and lawsuit. Then so sadly, Steve Ross gave the final remarks and it was all over. Another awesome annual meeting had gone by. A bunch of the group went off to explore the city, but I went back to Alex’s house with some of the others, and spent the rest of the day hanging out there with Alex, Jason, and Brian.

Day 72, I had a lot my salad left over from the meeting so ate the whole thing for lunch! Hehe.

Day 73, I don’t feel too good.

Day 74, aww, damn it, another summer cold! Why have my last three colds been during the 100 Days of Summer?

Day 77, had to accompany my mom and little brother to the zoo because she’s an epic metro n00b and would wind up in Virginia somehow.

Day 79, after lots of delays and making sure of stuff and finding a way to make it so much cheaper, I finally booked my vacation for September. Ow, my aching checkbook!

Day 80, went to Wolf Trap and saw a bunch of bands that were popular in the 60’s. Fun.

Day 83, since my camera stopped working back at the annual meeting, I needed a new one, so I got a new one at Best Buy, a Kodak EasyShare like my old one, but five years newer. And red.

Day 84, yay, NYRA-DC meeting! Baja Fresh in Dupont Circle, it was me and Alex along with Eric Goldstein, Usi Scott, and Heather Voke. Win. We passed around ideas for outreach. That evening I made a NYRA-DC Facebook group.

Day 85, first board meeting of the year. Lots of officer elections! I’m secretary again. Lulz.

Day 88, I also made a NYRA-DC Twitter.

Day 90, eep! Leaky kitchen window at work! All that rain. Window always leaks.

Day 96, went to see Collective Soul at the 9:30 Club. Awesome! Except they didn’t play Precious Declaration. Meh. At least The World I Know and Listen were played!

Day 98, first went to the Capital Area Food Bank to join WES with some volunteering there, and then off to the NYRA-DC BBQ that Heather was so awesomely hosting for us. I picked up Scott from the metro easily, then drove in circles a bit in Takoma Park looking for Hal, and finally off to Heather’s house, where a missed turn in her neighborhood got me lost for a little bit, and we finally got there over an hour late, but at least Conor and Eric and others had already arrived. Then I had to go back out and get Usi. But we were all there, minus the KP because he was in New Hampshire because he hates us. Had an impressive EIGHT people (yeah, that’s impressive, DC chapter rarely goes over three) and we chatted about local youth rights stuff we want to do and ate some great fajitas. Then I took everyone back to the metro in the pouring rain. Good times.

Day 99, meh, pretty much watched TV all day. Haha. One of those days that things kept coming on that I wanted to watch!

And finally…

Day 100, ate a yummy meatball sub for lunch, and this evening headed out to Merriweather Post Pavilion for the fourth of four concerts during this summer, this time to see The Killers. Wow, lights and pyrotechnics! And epic traffic leaving the place afterward. Eek!

And that’s about it. As these 100 Days of Summer draw to a close, I’m growing increasingly aware that, even though there will be situations well out of my control that will occur from time to time, for the most part, if I want the win and the awesome, I’ve got to seek it out and grab it. Life has infinite options, though with vastly varying difficulty of attaining, but we still must take the options ourselves and work out how to use them, for the good of ourselves and/or others.

So farewell to another 100 Days of Summer! Shall return next May for Round Ten in 2010. Goodnight!

This has been Day 100 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 9.

SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!

This time, I’m talking to the asswipes who think it’s so clever and funny to complain that “oh noes, I’m out in public and I hear a little kid crying, parents need to control their kids!” Next person who says that is getting stabbed in the face (or banned from the forums, LOL).

A couple weeks ago, I was out with my mom and my five-year-old brother. I had to go with them to the zoo because my mom is a severe metro n00b, and the type of n00b who thinks she’s an expert which only makes it so much worse, so for their own good, I went with them and had to practically hold her hand through paying the fare and getting the tickets and pointing her to the right stations to go to. Seriously, look at this map, and considering we were going from Twinbrook to Cleveland Park, which as you can see involves no transfers or anything, it’s all that much sadder.

But I digress. After the zoo, we stopped at a small restaurant and ate dinner. My brother of course was talking non-stop and giggling (a little boy seeing zoo animals taking a shit will provide months and months of retelling!) and after a while was tired of eating his food and got up and went wandering around the restaurant. Small place, so he was never out of sight or anything, and there were only like three or four tables and only one other one was even occupied. While the people at the other table never said anything, it was a little obvious they were annoyed that he was there. My mom and I tried asking him to come back and sit down, but he didn’t want to, and he wasn’t hurting anything or even being noisy. He was just there. So we just sort of giggled along with him and left him alone for the most part. I mean, why not?

Yet to many insecure jerkoffs out there, the act that my mom and I committed, of deciding to leave this little boy alone as he *gasp* walked benignly around this small mostly empty restaurant, was an unforgivable mortal sin. She even told me that there were other times she was at a restaurant with him and there were people loudly complaining about his mere presence, saying kids shouldn’t be allowed in the restaurant and that parents need to control their kids better. People think they’re so unique and brave to be speaking up about this “problem”. More accurately, they think they’re so privileged and elite that they ought to be offended that they should be expected to share a, you know, universe with those horrid inferior (by virtue of, oh, a later date of birth) beings called children. You know, given the choice between a five-year-old boy walking around a public place quietly and minding his own business and some stick-up-his-ass 40-something whining like a bitch that the five-year-old boy is there, gee, I wonder which one is being an immature brat and should STFU!

Listen here, you child-hating fuckwad. You are not in any way entitled wander through life without having to occasionally be near children, or any other group you may dislike for that matter. Oh, some mom has brought her toddler into a bookstore with her and it annoys you to see the little one picking up books and looking at them? That’s YOUR own stupid bigoted problem, asstard! Don’t sit there and act like the mom or the little kid have done anything wrong when YOU are the one with the serious issue here. Don’t like it? Then YOU leave the store and stop acting like children are supposed to be wrapped in straight jackets or hidden from society all the time. You are NOT superior to them. In fact, seeing as you’re the one wishing they’d go away because they’re short and can’t talk or move quite as well as they will later, while the little one is barely even noticing you’re there and certainly not holding any irrational hateful grudges, I think you just slid a few notches down from the one who hate so much.

And it’s always with the excuses and, in the case of the so-called “youth rights supporters” who claim to feel this way (the quotes are because real youth rights supporters don’t hate little kids), there’s always the claims that it’s not ageist bigotry, and that they’d be just as annoyed if an adult were behaving just like the kid. Oh yeah? Adults pick up books at bookstores all the time, just like the little kid you were hating on just a bit ago, and oftentimes leave the books in worse shape than the little kid might have. What if it were a mentally disabled adult, of the sort who pretty much has the mind of a five-year-old, though an adult body? Still hating, you dumbfuck? Then there are the claims that children are inherently disgusting, that they cough and sneeze and fart and stuff. Yeah, adults totally never do those things. Yeah, you’re worried the little kid in the grocery store might touch your cart, and you have nightmares about the mere idea, without a tiniest realization that the guy bagging your groceries just jerked off five minutes ago and knows perfectly well that the Employees Must Wash Hands sign is just that, a sign, and not a cop.

And what’s with being so pissed that little kids are crying? I feel bad when I hear a kid crying, too, but the feeling is because I’m wondering who or what has made him so upset to begin with and wishing he’d feel better from whatever it is. You, on the other hand, give no thought whatsoever to why he’s crying and merely wish to stuff something into his mouth and hopefully knock him unconscious. And, again, you’re supposedly the mature one?

Now I’m not saying the little things small children do now and then can’t get on anyone’s nerves after a bit. But that’s not what this is. You people aren’t getting annoyed because an individual toddler is screaming really loudly near you or anything. You internalize it, even the things that really aren’t all that annoying. This child’s mere existence, and any action she takes that reminds you of her existence, is a deep personal insult to you. She could be sitting at her table with her family and giggling at something, and the hatred inside you will boil and you will wish she was not there, because how dare she, an inferior being (by your own stuck up standards), exist in the same place as you, who’s superior for some reason? You will wish the parents would put a muzzle on her and lead her away from you on a leash, like the dog you are certain she is, because it’s not like she’s human because that would make her the same species as you! Oh noes! Can’t have that! Goodness, you’re all growed up, and you don’t have to stand for being forced to be in the same place as a child anymore, so like the mature superior responsible adult you are, you’ll scream and cry that the little kid is bothering you by being in the same place, whether a restaurant or store or airplane or wherever, and shame her and her parents away, like they are shamed away from many places by your anti-child ilk, by being called bad irresponsible parents and told they should beat the shit out of their little ones for speaking in a public place. Yeah, because child-haters are really the best people to be consulting for parenting advice.

So, yeah, if I’m with my little brother in a restaurant, and he gets up and walks around quietly and minding his own business, and you decide it’s your divine duty to give me or him shit about it, then get ready for me to go all Defensive Big Sister^TM on your stupid ass. Or if I ever actually reproduce some day and the same happens with my kid, I’ll go all Defensive Mother^TM on your stupid ass. And these aren’t just the ordinary defensive modes but the youth rights versions, so you just know that when I’m through with you, your lunch will have entered your body through more orifices than just your skanky mouth.

Go ahead. Call me irresponsible for not subjecting my little brother to pointless cruel restrictions just because your adult ego and privilege take precedence over his bodily autonomy. Call him a spoiled brat. Call me “too lenient”. I fucking dare you.

This has been Day 95 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 9.