Babysitting

I was talking to my niece recently, and was flabbergasted to hear that she was getting paid nearly $10/hour to babysit and watch "Hannah Montana." Then, I realized we have the same job. *sigh*

Modern Discourse

I hate walking into conversations where someone is automatically looking for confrontation. I don't generally like confrontation, but I hate it even worse when someone is looking for validation to their opinions, and can only feel validated if they've somehow intimidated or bullied other people into agreeing to their view. Its a poor form of intellectual dishonesty, and more importantly, it shows a real lack of emotional intelligence and maturity.

Yeah, that's right, I'm actually complaining about someone lacking maturity.

My problem is that modern discourse seems to have faded from the society I find myself in. Instead, it has been replaced by the modern viper-pit of back biting and venom that usually constrains itself to catty blog comments. It seems that the anonymity of writing horrific comments on blogs has emboldened a number of people to start saying similar things in real life. Why must everything be so polemic? Why must everyone have to fight (and notice I don't say argue, because there's no trying to see one another's point of view anymore) instead of finding points of commonality? And more importantly, why does everyone feel that they have to serve righteous indignation with their quest for validation?

Frankly, I'm getting tired of it, and tired of walking into these emotional/verbal time bombs. They're not edifying in any way, and most often, both sides are so riddled with psychic shrapnel that you rarely find survivors.

Perhaps I should stop writing and go buy a bulletproof vest instead. *sigh*

Job Layoffs

Surviving the latest round of job layoffs is like being a contestant on American Idol, but nobody blogs nasty things about me the next day.