I’ve come to understand the mindsets of a few different types of people when it comes to personal problems. Most people I know will simply deal with any problems, instead of fighting them head on. I find that I try to do the same thing sometimes, but I tend to come out a little worse for wear. Most have probably gained more serenity, something that I’m still learning to control.

Yet when most people are dealing with their issues in a passive manner, the methods become even more diverse. Justification seems to be a very common method, but many justify in different ways.

Some that I know believe that life is simply full of disappointments (a few Buddhist candidates, I’m sure) and that any bad things that come their way should simply be understood. They don’t get angry or upset, and they seem to come out on top of things in the end. Others try to ignore the problems, since thinking about them will only make things worse. Some that I know even use such bad situations to their advantage by exaggerating them for some cheap attention. I even know others who are able to feel better by comparing themselves to others.

Some will simply get depressed.

I find that I generally fall in either the former or the latter categories. I would hope so at least, since I’ve been in the latter for a great part of my life. I’ve been able to deal with things a little bit better now, for about three years. I suppose that it’s something that Rob was able to teach me, but probably also due to the fact that I’ve had a good last three years. I’ve been able to see the other side of life that so many others seem to be able to experience. I feel like I’ve only gotten a taste, and that I should try to experience it again.

But God still owes me some serenity.

I had some white cheddar KD for dinner tonight. I have to admit that it tastes better than regular KD. It seems to have a “higher class” cheap taste.

Blizzard has me addicted yet again. At least Dina is addicted too. And Trolley somehow made the FT beta, which is amazing. I feel like I get to say, “I know a guy who made the beta!” When I tell people they look at me funny.

I almost completed my graphics assignment. The only thing that’s missing is the object motion along the conveyor belt, and some polishing of the collision detection. I don’t think I’m going to be able to get perfect collision detection done, but I doubt that I’ll lose too many marks for that. I think I’ll just leave it the way it is, since I should be working on other projects, and I need to prioritize.

Mel is having a birthday party on Saturday at the Honest Lawyer, and I’m looking forward to going.

There are a few things I want to with this page, like add a feature that will separate archives into different pages, if it finds more than 100 results from a database query. I suppose I’ll find the time somewhere.

I got my mouse in the mail today. It has stiffer buttons and a stiffer scroll wheel, but everything is more responsive. I don’t like the fact that a part of the design isn’t flush with the rest of the mouse, so my pinky will catch on it. I’m not sure if that’s part of the design, or just something that happened to mine. The back thumb button is also a bit too small and sunken when pressed. The precision of the mouse is dead on though, even with extremely fast motions. I can now retire my old mouse. I should have given him a name.

I don’t know how Trolley seems to drink every night. Some weeks I wish that I had nothing but alcohol consumption, but my conscience always prevents me. I guess the idea that it’s costly and not-so-deleterious really prevents me from taking shots as dessert. Yet Wheaties just tells me, “drink for fear of being upset do to lack of reason to drink. this way, you can drink before you get upset, realizing there really isnt a need to drink, and you’ll be a peaceful alcoholist - better than a ragin one.. honestly, its for your own good”. I think I’ll heed some of his advice.

I read an article about a giant snow penis being erected and the controversy it created. The article discussed the way the entire joke was taken by some of the women on campus. Some of the female groups felt that “such a display is demeaning to women”, and that “women do not need to be reminded of the power of the symbol of the male genitalia.”

Although I agree that such a public display is inappropriate, I completely disagree with the reasons these women put forth. I’m willing to bet that the males who erected the sculpture were not thinking, “Hey, let’s create a huge display of male genitalia so that women know that their place in the world is below men”, but rather, “I’m bored. What can we do?” As one of the builders said, “We built it for fun”. I don’t believe that the motives behind such an act are sexist. Sometimes people just do stupid things.

I find that this has been a great trend in certain groups of thinking, such as part of the feminist movement. Sometimes members take things the wrong way. For example, I know of people who complain about commercials for household cleaning products, and state that it’s sexist to have a woman being the token spokesperson. They believe that the creators of the ad have the mindset that the main duty of a woman are the household chores. When I see the commercial, I ask why a male isn’t the spokesperson, why they show a male as being inferior to a female in doing the household chores. And since both sides see things in an opposite manner, I decided to ignore it completely.

After all, we take offence to how we see things, not to how they are.

The idea of women being reminded of the power of the male genitalia is an example of this. In the world, there are many, many phallic symbols. Take almost every type gun as an example. This can even be broadened to just about every projectile weapon. Sure, these things are reminders of the penis; they look the same, they serve a similar purpose, even the actions are the same. But not every single fucking object that holds a point is a phallic symbol. I don’t look at the Washington Monument and say, “Oh yeah, I have a penis. Aren’t penises great and superior in every way to vaginas?”

There seems to be a great oversensitivity still lurking from the PC movement that swept Canada in the 90’s. Things are taken the wrong way many times, when there was no intention of insulting anyone offending any group. I wish people wouldn’t place so much meaning in what others do, especially when the world is so full of sequacious people. Then again, the blind do lead the blind.

The only way I would be able to place some blame on the erectors ::ahem:: of the statue would be if there was some sort of subconscious sexist mindset that they had. This means that the creation of the snow statue was not a conscious decision to menace the women on campus, but rather a subconscious extension of their sexist ideas.

But somehow I doubt that.

I’ve been working most of the weekend on my graphics assignment. I have the arm animation working now, together with most of the timing, but the object motion is killing me. Somehow I have to get an object to move with the claw of an arm, get the object dropped, and then move along a conveyor belt. The prof gave us another week extension (on top of one we already had) so it’s due next monday. I would prefer to get it done for tomorrow though, since the delays in projects would just add up, and I have my honours project and cryptography project to think of. I might be hitting the bottle a bit early today.

I’ve been reading some Frozen Throne info, and the new units look pretty cool. The problem is that the expansion is completely changing and re-balancing all of the previous units and buildings. Essentially, it’s a completely different game. For example, all the buildings have their costs reduced by about 15%. Or the fact that units can now ethereal, and that there’s a new type of damage. Basically everything I learned has become useless. The only thing that I’ve kept is what I learned from micromanagement. Shit.

Some Strongbow, a bottle of Jag, and I’m a new man.