Entry 08/02/2005 08:19:53 AM – Mentat 179

     It’s amazing how people sometimes don’t listen…  I mean they say that they listen, but the only thing that they’re doing, is drowning out what they’re listening to by talking on incessantly.  Take, for example Joey on Yahoo.  In the three weeks since his introduction to voice chat, the only thing that he’s accomplished in his wanting to learn is drowning out everything and anything that has been given to him from the other chatters in the room by talking about himself, his issues, his wants, and his desires incessantly.  By the end of the first weekend, I had learned all that he had to offer, and was repulsed by his desperation.  By the second weekend, I got tired of hearing him altogether.  Last night, I am slowly changing my resolve to wanting to drive him off the Internet.  Hell, most of the users have heard him ad nausea, and have decided that the grace period for him is over and that he needs to get into line and straighten the hell out.  And did he hear what he was hearing from them?  Absolutely not — it gave him the platform to go on even more about the selfishness of humanity.  Not that he was being selfish himself by getting up on a platform and sermonizing the likes of us.  No not at all. 
     I think what was truly amazing had to do with the plain and simple fact that he couldn’t comprehend why people were repulsed by what he has to offer.  I mean, hell — it’s pretty easy to break it down into baseball terms:

Strike One:  He’s 32 years old and still living at home with his mother.  He hasn’t yet mentioned whether or not his mother’s an invalid, but it’s kind of hard to believe her to be considering that the first weekend I heard him chatting in voice chat, he was waiting for his mother to bring him home a pack of cigarettes.  That hardly qualifies that his mother is an invalid and that he’s home taking care of her.  If anything, it would appear that he’s at home sponging off his mother.  Not the kind of thing gay men find attractive or desirable. 

 

Strike Two:  He has a range of problems ranging from dyslexia through to depression.  While many people do indeed have many of these problems, Joey had brought them up in a manner to try to invoke sympathy for his predicament.  That doesn’t fly well when you’ve already got one strike on you…  But add three, and you end up with people not only scorning, but also ridiculing because these problems were used to invoke pity or sympathy. 

 

Strike Three:  Positively no ambition.  He speaks about wanting to be an artist, but he doesn’t really do all that much about it.  Hell, someplace in the course of the conversation it was announced that he’s some sort of line cook, and that he’s paid something like $8.00/hour.  If he had any talent whatsoever, he could always paint murals and such in people’s houses in order to get his artwork noticed and appreciated.  But he doesn’t.  He’s talked about putting some of his paintings on exhibit — but the place that he mentioned in Decatur isn’t really so much a place that’s known for art flying in and out of the place.  It’s more like a homeless shelter used to try to get money for those that just can’t get any money in their pockets. 

     Any one of these problems would make people more than a little leery, but all three?!  Why they make someone appear positively unappealing.  The only kind of people these qualities would attract are people that think fixing other people’s lives should be a hobby, instead of accepting people for what they are or aren’t. 

     I have thought about telling Joey these things, but the problem is that I can’t get a word in edgewise in voice chat in order for him to listen.  He’s almost always walking all over me when I try to get a word in.  If he continues the next time I’m in there, I plan on taking over the mic and reminding him that Yahoo Voice Chat isn’t a free therapy session for the likes of him…

 

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     Then there’s this woman that I frequently catch on the bus rides to and from work.  She’s what I would call one of those religious zealots that I usually try to steer clear of because of the amount of times she uses the word "God" in order to prove her point.  She had been at the same stop one day in the middle of spring and saw that I was reading a Chronicles of the Lensmen: Volume I and upon seeing the word "Chronicle" thought I was reading something of a religious nature.  (Ummm, the last time I checked, the word Chronicles is not an exclusively religious word, but that’s another issue.)  I had the opportunity then to take a tangle with her — but decided that a nap on the way home had more value than trying to talk sense to a brick wall — and left her alone. 
     Anyway — it would appear that this morning, someone on the bus decided on pushing her buttons about the "word of God".  She went off on her typical piousness and how the man is misguided and simply doesn’t hear the word of god, because he was too selfish and self-centered.  When he didn’t bow to her righteousness, she actually got three other women on the bus involved in her henpecking him into submission.  When it didn’t work — she attempted to wash her hands of him like Pontius Pilate. 

     What she didn’t realize was that he was doing this to goad her into activity this morning.  If she was listening, she would have realized this, and cut it off quickly.  Unfortunately though, the only thing she wanted to hear this morning was her own piousness for "God". 

     As a song that I have at home goes: "…It’s a wonder we can communicate at all…"

 

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     In other news, this weekend, I actually have to break down and head to the ophthalmologist’s office for a new pair of glasses.  These glasses have gotten so scratched up as they’re near impossible for me to see through one lens while sitting at home.  I’ve decided to look for an America’s Best and ended up finding one not too far up the street from me.  So, I set an appointment with them on the net for this coming Saturday, and have to make my selection of frames.  Of course, the choice of dates does make for some obstacles.  It would appear that one of the buses that I thought that I was going to be able to take doesn’t seem to run on Saturdays (not to mention that it doesn’t go anywhere near North DeKalb Mall), and the other bus that I would be able to take (the #75) leaves from the Avondale Station which means I have a hell of a trip ahead of me. 
     At least the good thing is that it’s only 4 miles from the house, and if I’m feeling particularly ambitious, I could always take the opportunity to grab the LaVista to Toco Hills, and walk the remaining three miles there in order to get there on time.  Either that or I’ll simply get up like I normally do, and take a "Sunday ride" on the trains in order to get to Avondale by 9:15 to get to North Dekalb Mall. 
     Of course, the most annoying part of this trip doesn’t have to do with the fact that I’m going to be doing this once, but if I recall, this will be twice.  As the first trip is for the eye exam, and the choice of lenses, and the second trip is to get them picked up and fitted.  Grrr… 

 

     Well, that’s about it for the time being.  Until the next time.