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1. How did you start your site? What is it about?

   I guess you could say my blog has its beginnings in late 2002, not long after I found out I was pregnant. I had seen a friend do something similar, and I thought it was a great idea to add a section to my already existing (genealogy) site where friends and relatives who aren’t around can get updates on the pregnancy, photos, etc. This carried on through the whole pregnancy and I sort of quit there.

   But in October 2003 when I had a three-month-old and some extra time on my hands, I thought I’d pick it all back up. I had such great fun at it all that I got the blog its own domain name and as time progressed I was getting more attention from strangers than family and it turned into more of a diary and lifelog than just baby updates and photos.

   Also, when I started, the site was just an html page that I updated with the dates and so there were no direct comments on entries. I had one page where people could leave a message and still have those posts. When I moved to actual blogging, I later had to track down those old posts via archive.org and them. I think I lost some of them in the process.

2. How do readers play a part in your site?

   I think I stand in the middle with this. On one hand, I really do not care if people visit and leave comments - after all, that’s how I started, never dreaming anyone who did not already know me would care and there are lots of things that I post that I just know will bore everyone else but I write them down anyway for me - but on the other hand, it does matter to me. Over the course of time, I’ve met some really great people through this whole blogging thing and I often really desire their input and validation. They
   are real friends to me, not just people who come and go, and I highly value their friendship and opinions.

   There have even been several occasions when I’ve asked for advice regarding my candle business, what scents people would be interested in. Both regular visitors and one-time visitors were very helpful in helping me choose scents to make that would suit a variety of people and not just myself.

3. When you started the site, what did you expect from the readers? Were those expectations met?

   Since I had started it all as a family thing, I had expected my family to at least pay somewhat attention. However, I wasn’t so lucky in that respect, especially after I got the separate domain for the site. My family (this includes uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.) sort of missed the change altogether (not that they had paid attention much past the initial pregnancy updates anyway) and, as far as I’m aware, none of them visit today, or even know the site exists, with the exception of two in-laws. What I ended up with was a couple of visitors for several months until other bloggers began to visit and make their presence known.

4. You get a lot of supportive comments, and you also get a lot of critical comments and comments which attack you personally. You are one of the bloggers who has sparked a lot of opposition due to your posts regarding Geek Squad and DHL. What do you think of the people who support you and the people who disagree with you on posts revolving around those companies? Has any company directly or indirectly retaliated because of your posts?

   When it comes to posting the ugly side of a company or pointing out a company’s mistakes, you’re bound to gather attention. There seems to be four types of people that respond to these posts. There are the friends who know I’m not just making stuff up and they offer their support for me, and indignation towards whatever it may be that has caused my grief.

   The second group is made up of those who have had their own problems with the company. They find me via search engines or other people who have shared their stories and linked me. They tend to just want someone to rant to about their issues, sometimes they want advice on where to turn next; they’re typically the biggest group of the four.

   The third group is typically smallest, the people who say they’ve not had a problem at all with that company, “but, whatever.” The fourth group is usually the most fun. These people are, for some reason or another, outraged that I would dare say anything negative about a large company; many admit to being employees of the company while others’ IP addresses tell on them. While some are nice and can agree to disagree, in my experience, most of these people take it personally and then proceed to act as such. However, they mostly seem to be lone gunmen. I have never had a company directly contact me about my postings nor are my postings wide-spread enough for me to be recognized when I am forced to deal with these companies “in real life” (especially since by the time I’m posting about them, I’m typically already boycotting them).

   I have had two occasions where an employee and then a different employee’s wife went to other, unrelated articles in my blog with other nasty comments but that’s been the worst of it. I don’t really have a general opinion regarding the people who agree or
   disagree with me, they are all given equal chance and profane language is edited out no matter which side of the fence they’re on. Also, I don’t respond to every comment. Sometimes I ignore comments, good or bad, depending on the amount of time I have.

5. Has earning money online played any part in dealing with commentors? For example, would you turn off comments if advertisers paid you to do so, or would you allow certain personal attacking comments if you were paid to leave the comments on and uncensored on some posts?

   I have personally never heard of either of those scenarios and they present an interesting dilemma. I think I would have to take that in a case-by-case basis. How much money are you offering? I really don’t think I could answer this question until I were to know all the specifics.

6. Have your blogging, other online or offline habits or behavior changed because of either the supportive or criticizing comments?

   Someone who visits my blog and calls me a nasty name because of my view of the Geek Squad doesn’t have me lying awake at night upset. At most I may wonder for a few minutes on how I should respond, if at all, but then I move on. However, there have been times where I have taken to heart things that commentors have said. Usually this is in regards to a parenting issue I feel lost at or some other life issue. My actions may be affirmed, and I will continue at how I am behaving, or someone may offer advice and I will try that out, too. The only real things that have changed have been due to an online stalker and a friend whom I had a falling out with.

   Because of those situations, I have taken many things private (only visible to friends and family I trust, or even sometimes just myself) that may have otherwise been posted publicly.

7. How do you deal with such comments, and commentors, that attack you personally?

   I pretty much handle this on a case-by-case basis. I think it also depends on the mood I’m in - haha (I /am/ after all, a woman).
   Typically, because of the moderation rules I employ, these comments will go straight to moderation (dependent upon how old the post is). If I feel I have something substantial or witty to say back to this person (or even if I have nothing to say), I may approve the comment and reply (or say nothing). If I’m unsure about it, I might check to see if they’ve subscribed to the comments or if they’ve left what appears to be a real name, email address, and/or URL.

   In other words, I’m more apt to give answer if they really seem interested in one rather than bash-and-run. If I get the feeling they’re bash-and-run and the comment is extraordinarily mean and/or full of profanity, there’s a good chance I’ll just delete it (especially when they have nothing new to add to the conversation like is common on the Geek Squad thread where they all have the same points/complaints).

From comments to commentors, Spoken-For keeps on speaking

From the above interview and the links presented within it, you can see a lot of trends that go along with that I said in a previous post titled “Disagree with arguments, not with people who argue.” Also, one can see from Valerie’s experience above as to how the shape of a site can change from being a simple website to being a blog, yet the function of the site remains exactly the same: to allow for a place for Valerie to express herself. What do you think?

Do you have any questions?

That is all for this time. Stay tuned for the next part of the interview soon, where I asked Valerie about the possibility of closing down comments section, the comparison between her blog and her online business, online stalkers, and more.

Please let me or Valerie know about any opinions, thoughts, or questions you can think of either by e-mailing me or Valerie, or by leaving a comment below.

Thank you for reading.

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A keyboard allows you to interact with the computer. You use the keyboard to convey a lot of your thoughts so that the stupid computer can understand it. Sure, the new robots can take over the world on their own without using a keyboard to type commands into their own brain, but they still use the input and output mechanism. The keyboard usually tries to provide us with the former. The original keyboard we are talking about here includes both the actual and original original 5-pound keyboard that plugs into a computer, and the actual keyboard that many people, who cannot easily type into a keyboard, use their eyes or touch or sound to command their computers to type through automatically.

But is the keyboard only a way for us to tell something to the stupid computer? No. A keyboard is much more than that. The meaning of the keyboard has been lost so much that talking about a keyboard itself qualifies as an archaic person in the eyes of many. Let me talk about the useful archaic nature of the keyboard in different ways, so that the keyboard and the concept of being archaic can be appreciated.

Transformation - new devices, on-screen monitors, etc

Slowly, gradually, and maybe surely, the keyboard is slowly slipping away from not only the minds of everyone and everything, but also from their access. We have touch based screens now, eliminating the need for the standard keyboard. We have styluses flirting with touch-based screens doing all the inputting, and we have hand-cuffed and non-handcuffed mouses running around, trying to bypass the powers that the keyboard had originally started to provide to others.

One of the biggest things was laptops. Oh yes, the laptops came with the keyboard built in. It made the original keyboard feel weird. It was not jealousy; it was a feeling that the real power will never be fully unleashed, and that the archaic powerhouse that can continue delivering forever was being replaced. Here was a replacement built into a replacement for the actual computer. Replacement within a replacement that was a replacement for a replacement. “Wow“, the keyboard thought. Aaah yes, the “Wow” that comes to mind not because of gratitude or complaint, but because of realizing what is being valued, what should be valued, and what is not being valued. It goes a bit along the lines of sadness, actually.

The keyboard is being evolved without its permission, and without it. It is being phased out with newer technology.

Abused when you get mad, ignored when you become happy

The keyboard is the most traumatized being in the computing world. When you get an e-mail from your ex or from a boss or a friend that you do not like, you first curse at the monitor. The monitor is used to hearing this, and the monitor, even though it has gone through a lot of therapy, can easily ignore you. The second rush of anger and frustrations lands on the keyboard: literally. You slam the keyboard, you smash it, you curse at it, you start typing really hard in order to vent your emotions or to express yourself while you react to the e-mail or anything that the monitor shows or does not show. Other forms of original keyboards from the earlier decades that were commanded using different methods like sign, sound and other things for people who could not easily type also suffered such madness: you either used them less, typed faster or cursed more at your touchless keyboards.

Of course, sometimes the monitor plays a game on the keyboard, if the keyboard was not nice or something. The monitor will show error messages or ugly emails from people you do not like. What happens then? You pound the keyboard. You try to break it. You try to assume that the person you hate is the keyboard, and you start taking revenge. Sometimes the monitor laughs. Sometimes the monitor starts ignoring. Sometimes the monitor goes “Oh $%^&“, after realizing the kind of psycho the keyboard is being beaten by.

The poor keyboard has suffered almost 40 years of such abuse. Even when the keyboard patient came to me for therapy, I could not do anything other than to listen and try to help the keyboard myself: the police does not allow keyboards to file restraining orders against their owners.

One of the real forms of depressions comes when you become happy and you do not express such happiness onto the keyboard. When was the last time you kissed the keyboard when you got a good email? The closest you have come to showing affection is to not slam on the keyboard when you are happy. The keyboard is a very thankful entity, since the keyboard is happy with not being abused whenever there is a chance of being abused.

Feelings, broken relationships with mouse and others, etc

The mouse was the first and only true sidekick to the keyboard. It was more of a handcuffed relationship, where both the keyboard and the mouse were handcuffed to a machine that controlled both of them. Together, the keyboard and the mouse gave millions of people ways to control and dominate and make a slave out of the machine called “a computer.” And the keyboard and the mouse did it all while being handcuffed.

Then one day they witnessed something bizarre. There were new slaves on the block. It is not yet known which one came first, but all of a sudden, slowly but surely, the new keyboard and mouse duo were coming over to replace these previous handcuffed slaves. What was so special about these new replacements? After all, they were also going to do the exact same job as the original keyboard and mouse? Well, there was only one different thing about these replacements. This difference would mark an era of new advancements that would make the original keyboard realize that not only was the end near for the original mouse, but also for the keyboard her/him/itself.

The new replacement keyboard and mouse were not handcuffed. They would operate with a lot of cooperation without the need to be tied to a gigantic machine that was almost 30 times their size. “Fear“, the new keyboard thought. It probably was fear, a fear so great that even without any way to hold them down, these new keyboard and mouse duo would not run away. Sure, they would sometimes not obey orders, but such disobedience would result in either replacement of blood through torturing experiments or in complete disappearance with new replacements replacing the replacements which were meant to replace the originals. Even if it was not fear, the keyboard and the mouse realized what was going on.

So important, yet so uncared for

The keyboard usually does not get much attention, even after going through events such as seeing his/her/its own replacement. The keyboard gets the least care in many houses, even though it is the most widely used external peripheral along with the monitor. The monitor screen gets cleaned more regularly than a keyboard. You can drop something on the keyboard, but you cannot drop anything on the monitor. If your monitor gets a scratch, you try to repair the monitor or get a new one. If your keyboard gets scratched, harassed, molested, beaten up and more, you try to replace the broken keys or you keep using it as long as the buttons are there. For the original keyboards commanded through sound or movement of other devices for people who cannot type easily into the keyboard, such an aura of uncare also stems onto such keyboard systems in different ways. Of course, usually, if your mouse gets dirty, you clean it. You can easily pound on a keyboard key if it does not push easily, but you will not abuse a mouse if its buttons or its ball bearing does not work properly.

Of course, the keyboard is thankful that you keep using the keyboard after such incidents, since throwing away the keyboard in the trashcan is not good in my eyes or in the eyes of the keyboard.

Where it’s headed?

Just like other things that aid others with utmost honesty and no self interest and whose status is considered archaic, the original keyboard is being aimed at the darkness. The dark side is willing to accept the keyboard, but not you. You prefer the wireless keyboard, the built-in keyboard in laptops and desktops, and you prefer manual dials and the mini-wireless mouse and the touch-screen monitors which have they keyboard software and recognition built in.

To make sure the meaning is understood: Keyboards do have some self interest. They want to help and they want to be helped or liked or listened to, like many others. Of course, like many of us, keyboards remain quiet, they keep doing their work, they keep helping in every way possible, and they keep going through the stages of not being thanked or appreciated simply because they do not know a world where they can manipulate like others. The original keyboard gets plugged into a world and it wants to start working right away. Little does the keyboard know that it is archaic, for the new ideas keep stemming up simply because they can stem up.

The life of the keyboard

That is the life of the keyboard. May all the universe realize the real reason of the keyboard and the reason behind its behavior, even if the real reason behind its life cannot be easily understood, or if such a reason is considered unimportant by everyone who wants to stop dreaming about the original, wired keyboard. It is time I stop using my laptop-keyboard in order to end this micro-biography of the keyboard: my laptop-keyboard cannot understand why anyone, even an archaic person like me, wants to talk about the original archaic keyboard.

Have you ever met the original keyboard? Do you still know or remember the original keyboard?

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You yourself may have done something that you later thought to be inconsiderate for the driver, or you may have given a ride to someone not close to you and experienced some discomfort because of the behavior of your passenger. I have given rides to many people, many of whom have acted very strange or done weird things from time to time. Some things are small, while others can be big. Starting today, I would like to draw your attention to some of such things.

1. Putting your feet everywhere

   So many people do this, it seems that one day someone will call me abnormal for thinking this should not be the norm. Ask the driver if you can put your feet on things other than the floor mat. Otherwise, putting your feet on the seat, the dashboard or even on the actual gearbox which the driver uses to change gears might result in the driver thinking you are riding in an air balloon. Or maybe not, as even in the air balloon you have to do your best to keep your feet on the platform.

   I knew someone who used to take off his shoes or slippers and put his feet on my car dashboard, the stereo area or the gearbox. I tried to focus on other things when I realize that he was not wearing any socks and his feet smelled. However, when the topic of what to eat came around, it was hard not to notice the bad smell when all you want to do is smell chicken or cheese cake and instead all you can smell is feet that were in shoes without socks for hours. It is bad for the car, it is bad for others, it is bad for me, it is bad for you. If you want a ride, please keep your feet on the floor. I am giving you a free ride, and thus you do not need to pay me back with your feet smell.

2. Slamming doors or the trunk real hard

   These days, the right front passenger door of my car makes a kind of a hissing and flapping sound on the outside when I’m driving fast. The sound is coming from the side rubber panels that have ripped away from the actual door, thanks for many people getting a ride and then slamming the door of the car as if it will not close unless closed with full plutonic force. Also, people think that trunks are made out of unbreakable materials, or they try to shut the trunk hard to make sure drivers can feel that the trunk has been closed.

   The main guy who caused those passenger door rubber rods to flap out knows about it, and simply says “It was like that since the beginning“, when he himself said “Man, what is that sound? It wasn’t there before.” It is like giving me a gift in return for me giving you a ride: I give you a ride and you give me a damaged door.

3. Changing the radio station or audio volume without asking first

   This is not the rule that you see in stereotypical Hollywood movies where anyone who is black starts shooting if their car radio station is changed by someone else. If I am listening to a radio station, simply ask if you can change it or say you want to change it and then go ahead and change it if I do not object.

   I was listening to an important news last year about a bridge that collapsed in the Bay Area on a station I accidentally found through the channel search feature on my radio, and the person I was giving the ride to got into the car and immediately put on a preset I had set on the radio without asking or even thinking first. He just wanted to listen to random music. I could not find that new station again, and as expected the route I took to avoid that damaged bridge was crowded, resulting in a more than 2 hour drive that spanned around 7 miles.

4. Not closing car windows completely

   If I am driving and I can hear wind flushing through some lightly open window, I try to close that window. “You are hearing too much.” No, I want to close the window completely. “You must have really good hearing.” No, I want to close the window completely. “You are too paranoid.” No, I want to close the window completely. I am not sure how people can sit and ignore or not hear such a sound while assuming that they have closed the window completely. The sound that the air makes squeezing in through that small layer of opening is loud enough to reach the driver, me, all the way from the passenger side; how come the passenger does not care where that sound is coming from?

   In addition to hearing, you can feel the wind blowing in a little bit from the back, as the air gushes in and comes back to the front. So if you are hard at hearing or cannot hear, slowly you may get used to the change in the air in the car and realize that some window is not fully closed. If not, then I must have super powers in order to hear and feel that some window is not fully closed, and be able to pinpoint which window too. Similarly, if you open some window and I drop you, close the window and do not just leave it open. I am driving the car and unless I was part of the Fantastic Four, I have to lean at least a little bit in order to drive and roll up your window also. You did something. You undo it too when you are leaving.

5. Opening different car doors without asking first

   If you want to put your bags in the back, try to ask first. Simply walking up to a car you have never or rarely ridden in and trying to open the back door or the trunk or actually opening the trunk or the locks of the back doors without asking is impolite. It is like opening other people’s house doors to lodge the extra stuff you have. Maybe the driver has stuff that he/she can move, or maybe they would like you to put your stuff in some specific location. Asking first is better than opening the car openings without permission.

   I used to give a ride to a scary neighbor from time to time, and since day 1 he would come and start opening the doors in the entire car without asking and putting even his lightest of belongings, like his cap, in the back. A few times he would try to open the trunk and then tap hard on the trunk a few times, signaling me to open it. Make sure you pay me if I’m your slave driver. Or wait: are slaves supposed to be paid? Hmmm.

6. Making the driver come to you instead of you walking to the car

   What is with people who want car rides and do not walk towards the car when it is there for them? I have to drive all the way to align the car door to their feet in order for them to get in. Soon they will want me to open the door and carry them and put them into their seats also. It is as if the person getting the ride is doing the ride giver a favor.

   A person I was giving a ride to, regularly during some weeks last year, never used to walk to the car. If I had trouble getting past other cars, or if there were many pedestrians and I had to wait for those pedestrians to cross, this person would not walk over even if he was only less than 20 feet away. He used to stand there looking at my car, holding his back pack and waiting for my car door to align with his right foot. I should have charged him for the limo service that he was getting.

7. Putting your belongings everywhere without asking

   This goes along a little bit with the point of opening extra doors or the trunk to put your stuff in: if you have a lot of stuff, it is nice to ask where to put it. Putting dirty stuff on clean things or clean stuff on dirty things usually results in clean things getting dirty, and not dirty things getting cleaned.

   Someone I gave ride to long time ago would put his dirty, wet dirty bag onto the clean back seat or my books that were supposedly sitting quietly on the back seat. Once the book the bag sat on caused the first half of that small book to soak in the water. The reaction of the guy when I told him about it? “Ohhh, I guess those two don’t get along with each other.” Whether or not that made sense, I knew that cars and this guy did not get along: he did not deserve to be in a car.

7 things to avoid on your next ride with me - till the next part of this series at least

There you go. Those are the 7 things to avoid, when getting a car ride, for today. Stay tuned for the next time when 7 more horrible sins are revealed for your consideration, in case you wanted to annoy some driver while he or she was giving you a ride, or if you wanted to make sure I think agreeing to give you a ride was a bad idea.

Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you have experienced any of these points yourself, or if you have yourself done any of the above.

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1. You doubt a complete group of people immediately while trusting the other one completely

   Imagine me telling you that a certain group of people did something bad, and that you immediately come to the conclusion that those people are bad and that you should not expect anything better from them. Now imagine me telling you that some people from the groups that you associate with did something bad, and that you immediately say things along the lines of “Well, they must have had a reason” or “It was only them who did it” or “I am not sure, I need to know the whole story before I judge.” Chances are you discriminate against a certain group immediately, while thinking critically when it comes to judging your own group of people.

   When you hear about some Jews acting bad, you immediately agree that they are bad. When you hear about some Muslims acting bad, you immediately make sure that you try to ask for more proof or verification of the story, or you try not to judgment, opposite to what you did in the case of the Jews. The exact opposite story, interchanging the Muslims with the Jews and vice versa is a similar example. No matter what side you may be supporting, you discriminate against the other instantly and start passing judgments as if your opinions are thought our critically.

   When you hear about some militant groups in Africa molesting and raping young children in certain areas in order to spread more fear, you start concluding that they are less civilized. When you hear about some American soldiers molesting or raping girls in Japan and some other bases, you immediately start doubting the story, asking for more verification, and maybe even starting to pinpoint the bad things about the foreign country in which such reported incidents take place. You may call such a trait patriotism; in reality, it is racism and a form of stupidity thriving together.

2. Your pro-country mentality result in you hating a certain country or group of people

   This is a huge headache in many cases. Europeans hating the Americans, Americans hating the Europeans, Palestinians hating the Israelis, Israelis hating the Palestinians, Canadians hating Americans, Americans hating Canadians, Pakistanis hating Indians, Indians hating Pakistanis, Mexicans hating Americans, Americans hating Mexicans, North Koreans hating the Americans, Americans hating the North Koreans, Chinese hating Japanese, Japanese hating Chinese, Iranians hating the Americans, Americans hating the Iranians, etc etc etc. It is as if countries were built to hate each other. I realize they were.

   A small group of people from some hurt your country, and you are going to start hating the entire group of people or the majority of some country that those people are from because of that? Take your racist, narrow-minded mentalities somewhere else. I do not care. Anytime you automatically stereotype a majority or all people associated with a group of people because of your love for your own country, stay away from me, and instead impose your racist views on your family or your poor do-not-have-a-future-because-of-racist-parents children. Every country in this world is suffering, and every country in this world is inflicting harm on some other weaker country. Having a full circle of hating one another because of that only spreads racism.

3. Your pro-religion mentality results in you hating a certain country or group of people

   Christians against the Muslims, Muslims against the Christians, Buddhists against other religions, other religions against atheism and Buddhism, etc. How many times, every week or every minute of the day, do we see ourselves or someone else, either in real life or on TV, stereotype against a certain religion or someone or a group of people who try to follow a certain religion, or who may be directly or indirectly associated with a certain religion.

   If someone brings up something bad about a religion you do not know about, you agree that it is bad. If someone brings up something bad about your religion, you want to inquire more, you try to defend your religion, you try to criticize every critic of your religion. For you, reality does not revolve around what is happening. For you, reality revolves around your religion being right and you defending it. That mentality is the exact same as those people who go around the entire planet torturing innocent people because of religion: killing people in Middle East because of religion, burning mosques and churches in America, prosecuting all religious people in many countries, torturing non-religious people in several religious countries, etc. It is as if your religion exists in order to spread torture, and you exist in order to spread racism.

4. Your pro-ethnic mentality results in you hating certain ethnicities while completely favoring some over the other

   Try remembering the last time someone brought up some major ethnic discrimination event from years ago, in order to justify your own hatred or discrimination for others. Maybe try remembering the last time you yourself cited some major event of racism or hatred in order to justify your hatred against some group of people. Did you yourself suffer anything, literally, in person? How many Vietnamese people who complain about the Vietnam war were actually in the Vietnam and suffered in person, and are thus not enjoying life at all today? How many of the African American youth today which complains about being stereotyped were actually stereotyped and hurt in person in the 60’s and 70’s, since that is the era I keep hearing everyday from the mouth of many?

   How many people have actually seen a Jewish person steal money, a French act stupid and drunk, an Arab blow up something, a Canadian act illiterate of the world events, an American molest females in army bases in other countries, a Mexican steal your job literally, a Cuban bring drugs in his shoes, a black man listen to rap music while robbing your neighbor, and a white person running around screaming out “KKK FOR ALL” at the top of his or her lungs? There can be hundreds of more examples along the lines of what I just said. A lot of these things have happened, and a lot of these things are not happening. How can we look at the example of a few and stereotype everyone? You are going to stereotype everyone or even a large group of people, people you know nothing about, simply based on what some specific people have done?

   Your excuse of “I know not everyone is like that” is stupid, pathetic and immature, considering the fact that you are always stereotyping that certain ethnic group and that when you are cornered you resort to that defense. Most people who complain about discrimination against them, in order to justify their own discriminatory views, have not experienced any of the above, yet they will say “I know it has happened to others, so I know what is going on.” Really? If we used such mentality, then all the Chinese, Japanese, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Americans, Mexicans, Canadians, French, Europeans, Russians, Buddhists, and more would be hating everyone on this planet, because I know a lot of Japanese, Koreans, Muslims, Christians, Anti-semitic-yet-do-not-realize-it, Europeans, Americans, Russians, and other people who have suffered physically in reality and people who simply cry on the bandwagon because someone else in the distant suffered or their great great grandfathers suffered.

   “Avoid saying such things which stereotype and hurt other people and their image“, I say. “Why don’t you mind your own god damn business or get lost.” Awesome mentality you have. Keep saying things that mingle with other people’s lives and business, but when others tell you to not say such things, you tell others to mind their own business. That is some amazing mature mentality you have.

   Similarly, hating some ethnicity or feeling discriminated simply because your ancestors suffered does not mean you suffered. Suffering the after effects is one thing, and not suffering anything and being genetically linked to people who suffered, while enjoying life, is not equivalent to suffering yourself. There are many of us who have actually suffered in our lifetime more than you and your ancestors combined. Trying to attract the sympathy of others, by playing the victims game, in order to justify your own hatred when in reality you have suffered nothing is stupid. Such a logic does not equivilate to you being justified in hating others.

5. You cannot help yourself from making certain ethnic or religious jokes which completely stereotype and hurt others, while you cannot make certain jokes about some ethnicities or religion

   Ever hear the joke about the sex-addict and stupid French woman? Ever hear the joke about the terrorist Arab? Ever hear the joke about the miser Jew? Ever hear the joke about the stupid Japanese? Ever hear the joke about the illiterate American redneck? Chances are, you may have heard all of these jokes, but you may not be comfortable with all of them. If you do joke about some ethnicities but cannot joke about some other specific ethnicities, you may be racist. Simply joking about every ethnicity does not make you an anti-Racist; it just shows that you hate many more ethnicities than a typical racist person.

   There is a difference between joking and not meaning things and realizing when it may hurt people and when it may only be a joke, and joking and hurting people and claiming that you did not intend to hurt anyone. If you are not good at realizing when it will hurt someone, stop joking.

   You are comfortable at making fun of French or the Germans people but not the British? You are comfortable making fun of Buddhists or atheists but not the Christians? You are comfortable making fun of the Chinese or Koreans but not the Japanese? You are comfortable making fun of Muslims or the Arabs but not the Jews? You are comfortable making fun of Colombians or Cubans but not the Mexicans? You are comfortable making fun of people with light colored skins but not dark skin? You are comfortable making fun of anyone else except anything you try to associate with yourself or a group that the society around you tries to associate with? Poor you, you stereotypical racist moron. Your jokes are ways for you to be scared of being racist and be a racist at the same time, since your supposed-”it’s a joke“-disclaimer can probably make someone not beat you up for being stupid.

6. You stereotype all the time, and you try to hide behind jokes or certain disclosures.

   This is a trend that is slowly gaining more acceptance and ridicule at the same depending, depending on different people. Repeatedly making jokes about someone’s ethnicity, religion, lack of religion, lack of ethnicity, their background or anything else, which hurts someone, means you do not care about that person. That also means your jokes exist solely to make racist and discriminatory remarks, and that you are hiding behind your jokes to get away with your inability to not hate someone directly or indirectly because of things outside their control, like their background, as if someone was completely wrong with it in all situations.

   When you know a joke can hurt or simply offend someone, as to why you are making that joke in context to someone who is involved in the conversation or joke with you, there is no point in saying “I’m sorry” afterwards. Why be sorry when you are continuously doing whatever you are doing anyhow?

Racism Rules! Literally.

These are the 6 signs that show the racism in you, me and others. These are also the 6 signs you can use to observe others around you and see whether or not someone exhibits some forms of hate or discrimination against some person or a group of people. Ideas and feelings of racism, without actually experiencing anything bad ourselves, are all around us. Even when we experience something ourselves directly, the idea of racism or hating a group of people only increases or takes turns. It can be very hard to simply keep such feelings inside of us.

I do not care what religion you have, what country you are from, what ethnicity you fantasize about, and what color you love blending in with. Treat me the way I act and am, and I will treat you in the same manner. Act racist around me, and I will simply realize that I wasted time around a loser like you. It’s your life; you can live in your small little racist bubble and feel all powerful and righteous. We both know what you really are. All I care about are actual actions, feelings and experiences in life.

Every point mentioned above can be observed as having different levels of dedication. Some people commit to some or all of the above points all the time, while others resort to it from time to time. Still, some people simply say some extreme things without actually being racist in order to make a point. However, if the listener or other people do not realize that you made a point, you have actually hurt the other person. What is the point of not being racist when your actions are hurting others as if you were racist? How about not being a racist and making sure whatever you do does not hurt others either?

Thank you for reading. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go to near an Indian owned 7-eleven to a Boba place owned by Koreans where only Asian workers are cashiers and only Mexicans make Boba in the back room, with the only non-Asian customers at night being white kids who read comics and where a black person will almost never be a customer. Or maybe I’ll go eat at Jack-in-the-Box next to it where I can focus more on getting curly fries than on the ethnic or background segregation of the drive-thru people or the people making the food. Who said fast food places were good for nothing?

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If I stop at a gas station,
you are always right behind me.
If I don’t have enough money,
you choke the gas attendant to make sure the gas’s free.
If I lock myself out of my house,
you somehow have the extra key.
I usually wake up from a nightmare,
dreaming you are right beside me.

People sometimes tell me,
“You two look good as a couple.”
I look around and see no one,
and ask “DAMN WHAT COUPLE?”
“Relax, the two of you, silly”³,
they say while pointing behind me.
I quickly turn and from the corner of my eye,
see a shadow disappear behind me⁴.

People sometimes ask me,
“You’re alone. Where is your boyfriend?”
I say “What are you talking about?”
They say “we’re talking about your boyfriend!”
I guess homophobic people are aplenty⁵,
so having any guy close by means he is your boyfriend.
At least I know that one more person since last month has started following me⁶,
that this time it is a guy, and probably a supposed-friend.
I guess having an invisible stalker in the eyes of many,
can result in having a boyfriend.

I am worried, something freaky is going on,
why am I the only one being followed?
Now I know what a girl feels like,
when by desperate guys she is followed⁷.
It’s all right, life is full of weird things,
like having 2 people get obsessed with me at the same time⁸,
one being a homophobic girl and the other being a yet-to-be-gay guy who likes that girl⁹.
I guess recognition won’t come this way,
but one following the other, stalkers keep falling like the rain.
Though I wonder, why would anyone want to follow a soul who always gets a “Inzane! Zain, you are inzain!“,
a soul that brings change and happiness to others but inside may have a lot of pain.

Could it be because you like that other girl,
the very girl that is also obsessing about me?¹⁰
Could it be that in your search for vengeance for your pointless life,
you started following the very person who can see your pointless life: me?
O’ moronic Stalker, I don’t carry signs that say “Available for stalking“,
go stalk the girl stalker who is obsessed with me.
You two will be happy together, stalking and preying on each other,
in the wonderful game that stalkers call “The Stalking Spree.”

Long live you, O’ Stalker,
At least you don’t stalk me like that girl,
the girl who is a self-proclaimed girlfriend of mine.
Die soon you, O’ Stalkers,
since you’re both creepy,
and because I want you to stay away from my life of a drowning cloud.
I have enough and better wonders in my own life,
things that hopefully one day will be spoken out loud.
Maybe one day you both will realize and tell others, out of the entire world,
what Bes is and was really all about.

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The laptop is 1 month and 3 days old today. Who could have done such a thing? What heartless bastard could have broken into a house, probably harassed the cat, and taken an innocent infant laptop who was just sitting there?! The neighbor’s house was also broken into, but the neighbor did not have any bastard children laptops, so no laptop child was stolen from that house. How strange it is, that one house suffers nothing but a broken door and trauma, while the house next door ends up with a broken door, trauma, a traumatized perverted cat, and a missing laptop child.

Victims’ and the Crime profile

This is a real theft people. Sure, you may not believe some things as you may assume it is out of this world, but the laptop was stolen yesterday, and your help is needed.

Reward?: Yes, and this is real. $500 reward through Paypal to anyone who finds or helps Ronald actually find and recover the laptop undamaged.

Where?: Huntsville, Alabama, USA

When?: Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007, between 7 am and 11 am

Type: Apple MacBook Pro, 15″, silver, 2 Gig RAM, 7200 RPM 160GB HD.

Age: Only a month, 3 days old laptop child

Mother: Apple [sold her baby to Ronald on the black market called the Apple store]

Father: Ronald [under investigation by the National Laptops Welfare & Long Battery Life Association [NLWLBLA] for suspicion of buying a laptop child on the black market]

Name or Model # of the victim: A1226

Nickname or Serial number of the victim: W87371FAXAG

Secret lovers: The cat [rumored by angry neighborhood cats. No evidence to confirm or deny this claim]

Instructions for the cops and others to follow

This is a note to all the cops, the community, and anyone who cares about young children, young laptop heartless children to be precise! Imagine the lonely laptop, sitting there without a cover, without a mouse, without the cruel abusive master of an owner who only now realizes the value of the laptop child, and most important of all, without the secret cat lover!

All cops should keep on the lookout for any depressed laptop child that is not turned on. By turned on, I mean turned on screen-wise and not literally, though if you thought I meant literally you are in the same class as the secret cat lover. Anyhow, back to the kidnapping topic! All highway patrol cars are advised to focus on expensive car drivers going empty handed to poor areas and coming back to rich homes in rich areas with a new Apply MacBook Pro. Poor folks can’t afford such a laptop baby, so probably some rich sucker would want to save a thousand on an already expensive product and bring it back to lala land only to discover that the laptop child was kidnapped from Ronald and the lesbian cat.

Non-federal authorities aren’t of help, so hitmen have been hired

So far, non-federal authorities have been uncooperative or unsuccessful in helping the quest to find the missing laptop child. The local rental association has no video, audio or picture record or any recollection of a baby being kidnapped and taken to a car, nor any video or pictures of any people coming in or out of the complex.

Apple, the corporation that not only provides people with laptop children but also can take those laptop childs’ brains away if needed, cannot help either unless and until someone connects the laptop child to the internet and accesses the internet, at which point Apple will terminate [HEAVEN FORBID] the laptop child. Ohhh the horror this world sees! “If I can’t have my laptop child, no one can!” Ronalds’ decision to hire the professional hitman corporation, Apple, is not yet backfiring. Maybe it will be after the fate of the laptop child is sealed and public that we will see heartless child rights organizations going after Ronald for his decision to not allow his laptop child to live if it is not sitting on his lap or next to the cat.

My community aspect of the investigation, and the Iron Claw Assassin

In my research, where I tried to offer help in the neighborhood aspect of the investigation, I found out that I was not welcome anywhere, and that no one wanted to tell me about the missing child. “Why?” I thought. I wondered if everyone was part of this conspiracy. I wondered if everyone knew something but was afraid to tell me. I wondered if everyone knew something but did not want to tell me because they did not like me. Soon, however, I found out why no one wanted to tell me anything about the missing child. “What the hell is a macbook pro?“, “Are you stupid? Why in the world are you looking for a damn apple? Go buy another one from the grocery store you cashless psycho!” and “Who gives a damn about Apple! I have a dell with a D, as in DIE Apple!” were the three sets of answers I got from everyone. It seems no one knows where the damned child laptop is. So much for assuming that the community is of help; it never is. I am wondering if I should do my best to get to the attention-disordered laptop child before the hitmen do.

I am trying my best to locate the stealth Iron Claw Assassin. So far, all my inside agents have reported that they have been unable to locate the Iron Claw Assassin. All of my attempts to locate her have proved futile. That is sad, since the Iron Claw could have pursued the laptop child kidnappers and taken care of them the way The Mad, Mad, Mad Screamer was taken care of, and I am confident that the laptop child would have been recovered safely, albeit a few scratches because of the claw. Claw, holding the laptop child, scratch, pointed, sharp, get it? Better to get back a dented laptop child than no laptop child. Whatever case Iron Claw Assassin is working on, I wish she could finish it soon or just give it up to help us pursue this demonic laptop child that Ronald and the authorities are so obsessed about right now.

I have offered sacrifices to the sea in the form of throwing out trash that was in my car into lakes, rivers and oceans. I have bought nuts for the damned squirrels in Berkeley while avoiding the squirrel who shall not be named [seriously, he cannot be named, nor linked to, but you know how to find out more about him, don't you?], cleaned up after psycho, murdering cats, and even spied on all cats making out with other cats in the community in hopes of finding some laptop children nearby, since rumors say that the missing laptop child had affairs with Ronalds’ cat [more on that below]. So far, I have uncovered nothing, other than the mysterious looks from all cats that probably wonder “Why the hell is he looking at us while we kiss each other? EWWWWWWWW” I hope I can forget everything I am seeing today once, and if, the laptop child is found.

Rumors about affairs between the cat and the laptop child

I did find out through my contacts that there were some illegal affairs between the cat and the laptop child. Even though I was looking for evidence for such claims, deep inside me I remembered the cat when I had met it last month, and I realized that the cat did exhibit such lovely affections to every object inside Ronalds’ house, including me when I was there. However, think of the laptop child: you wouldn’t want your desktop or laptop child to suffer the same trauma, so why ignore this tragedy where a young pro-beastiality laptop child got kidnapped? Sure, you are against animal cruelty, but come on, this laptop was less than a month. So what if a month old laptop baby likes to feel touchy-touchy with a cat? Blame the grown up cat for seducing and having affairs with a child. As you can see from the image to the right, there are some public pictures of the cat trying to get close to the child laptop sexually. Heck, blame the photographer, Ronald, for taking such pictures and not stopping the cat and the laptop from feeling close in that manner!

Me, personally, I have no problem with the cat as I think it does not realize that many humans do not like such contacts with laptops. However, the issue here is the kidnapping of the laptop child, and not the pedophile cat or its master of a roommate Ronald who focused only on what the laptop could provide in terms of productivity and not on the relationship aspect of the laptops’ life. Let’s get the laptop child back now and let’s stalk the pedophile cat and yell at Ronald for being so careless later! Ronald is sad now, so let’s make sure he knows we are there for him! Hmmm ok wait, scratch that: I have to play an online game after this. Ok, Ronald is sad now, so let’s make sure he knows that YOU are there for him, and that I will be there for him soon hopefully. All this neighborhood investigation has bored me to death, so I need some time off. 6 minutes of total investigation takes a lot of effort people!

Community feels strong bias and discrimination by the police

Many community members have told me that they feel the law enforcement authorities are giving way too much attention to this even simply because it was an Apple laptop child that was stolen. “My damn’ Windows 95 laptop of 8 years was stolen last week and no one is investigating that“, a father of 2 new laptop children told me. Some other people pointed out the fact that most Windows laptops are dark in color, while the Apple laptops are usually white or silver in color. All local law enforcement authorities are denying that any racism is involved, citing that most law officers use computers running windows XP, that officers of many different colors from orange to blue to white to green to yellow to black to violet to red and more, are involved in the investigation. Furthermore, a short survey by me revealed that many officers do not know what a MacBook is, let alone know that Apple creates silver MacBook Pros; therefore, officers cannot discriminate against non-Apple laptop owners’ cases since they don’t even know what is missing. Ronald had to show them the laptop box, pictured above, to show the police officers the picture of the poor laptop child that was missing.

Those close to me want the laptop child to stay missing

My desktop and laptops are happy, though. They are laughing and saying “HAHA damn retarded over-hyped apple products! Doing the same exact thing that other products can do. Only thing they are definitely better at that is life-shattering is to get stolen and kidnapped.” Ignore my jealous desktop and laptop, please, and be well! They do not know what glamor is, since they grew up in a hard working family of computers which focused on bread and not gold, and thus they exist to help the poor and those in need instead of being like you, oh dear Apple MacBook Pro laptop child, where you focus mainly on those with fat wallets. You have a higher purpose in life but my laptop and desktops don’t, so please ignore their evil laughs and bad prayers, and instead be safe! When you get back you can laugh back at them!

What if you find any lonely laptop child?

So please, if you see a lonely baby laptop anywhere, see someone talking about selling a baby called “Apple MacBook Pro” or a see a child that has a 15″ screen sitting by the road somewhere, go and talk to the laptop child! See what is going on. Maybe it’s the laptop child Ronald lost! Maybe it is someone elses’ child! Who knows. If the laptop child does not belong to anyone, ask the police. Ask the local hospital. Ask the local tech shops and electronic stores. If no one knows the history of the laptop child you find, do one thing please: sell the laptop child.

Sell it on Amazon, on ebay, on craigslist, anywhere you wish. Since you tried and couldn’t find the laptop childs’ original home, you might as well make some money.

Take action, or make money!

So please, go get your holy books ready to pray for Ronalds’ laptop child, go get your jacket or t-shirt on to go look for the laptop, take out your own desktop and laptop child to search for the missing child laptop. And in the end get your Craigslist, ebay, and Amazon seller accounts ready. For if you do find a laptop child and cannot find where the laptop child came from, you can help find it a new home if you do not want to use it or do not want to get caught, and earn some money along the way too.

$500 reward for finding the laptop

This is also the part which you have to take the most seriously. Ronald is offering a $500 reward to anyone who can recover or find his laptop so Ronald can get his laptop back, undamaged. Ronald will pay you via Paypal.

Look for any Apple laptop child with the model number A1226 and serial number W87371FAXAG.

This is hoping that the laptop child is able to sleep tonight without any problems! My thoughts and wishes and my heart is with you, though my desktop and laptop are still praying that you die a horrible, anti-Microsoft death. Let us see what happens.

If you have any information about this Satan laptop child or would like to help with this ongoing investigation, please e-mail me or contribute below. Thank you!

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1. Many taxi drivers honk at everything

   You did not start driving the very millisecond the light turned green? The taxi driver will honk at you. You slowed down by one mile and are still over the speed limit? How dare you: the taxi driver behind you will honk at you. You are waiting at a pedestrian walk and letting some people walk by in front of you? Boohoo! You deserve a honking.

   Honking, or using the horn, can cause a lot of stress or anxiety in others. It is a perceived sign in most cases that our action is not right, and thus many people simply become nervous and upset because of being honked at for something they cannot identify.

2. Taxi drivers drive too fast

   You get scared while driving at 80 mph in a 75 mph zone. However, many taxi drivers feel that you driving at 80 mph in a 75 mph zone is too slow. Speed up! Speed limits were meant to be broken. Your car comes with the capability to drive at up to 120 mph for a reason.

   Driving fast and having an even faster drivers right behind you can cause stress. I see many taxi drivers sometimes driving less than 50 inches from fast cars in front of them. I am guessing everyone has an emergency of some kind, like the emergency to avoid slow driving.

3. Taxi drivers suddenly switch lanes without showing any sign or an indicator

   Try changing lanes without showing any indicator and coming in front of a fast taxicab. You will probably be honked at, like by the taxi drivers in point #1 above. However, many of the same taxi driver will change lanes without showing any indicator or sign.

   Last year a Ford taxicab driver changed lanes and came right in front of me, less than 50 or 60 inches from my car, while we are both driving at the speed limit. He did not show any indicators, and thus I had to hit the brakes and slow down myself, with cars behind me hitting their brakes also. The car right behind me could not slow down on time and I got rear-ended, with the car behind me getting read-ended also. Insurance covered me 100% through various ways because it was not my fault, but the people behind me were not that fortunate. The taxi driver who played a major role in the entire accident didn’t have to feel any stress or waste any time at all, since he kept driving and was never caught.

4. There is usually no stop sign, no speed bump, and no respect for a non-paying walking pedestrian life for many taxi drivers

   You stop at a stop sign. Many taxi drivers only slow down at a stop sign. You slow down over a speed bump. Many taxi drivers do their best to see how high they can fly while speeding over a speed bump. You stop when someone is crossing the street, even if the light is green and they are crossing illegally. Many taxi drivers keep driving at the same speed when they see a pedestrian walking.

   I was crossing the road near a movie theatre earlier this year, at a stop sign. A taxi driver was approaching and did not slow down at all for the stop sign, where I was crossing. I had to run to save my life while the speeding taxicab passed without stopping at the stop sign. The taxicab missed me by the length of my jacket’s end: the end of my jacket touched the right side mirror of the taxicab and I felt a small pull by my jacket in the direction where the taxicab was headed. The risks Bes has to take to watch movies are just countless.

5. For many taxi drivers, no space is too small, and no opportunity is too risky

   Taxi drivers can be great risk takers. If they see a small opening between two cars, they will try to squeeze through. If they see an opportunity to pass someone by changing lanes while other nearby speeding cars are approaching in those same lanes, the taxi drivers will still change lanes and force the other drivers to slow down.

   The small scratch to both cars while the taxi driver tries to squeeze through? $120. The brakes that die because a taxi driver suddenly jumps into your lane without giving you much space to avoid the taxicab? $900+. The accidents that happen because of some taxi drivers doing whatever they please because they think they have more rights over the road simply because they earn money driving? A few lives and broken bones. The terrifying look on your face when you see such taxi drivers jump right in front of you and the evil happy look on those taxi drivers’ faces? Priceless.

A personal example: when I was a taxi driver

A few years ago a friend of mine who owned a private taxicab took me around with him while giving his customers rides. My friend would tell his passengers, or customers, that he was teaching me how to drive a taxicab. I was only hanging out with him as he did not have enough time to hang out with me by not driving a taxicab and still earn a living. I did help my friend a few times for free, by driving around his customers while he had some emergencies.

While driving the taxicab, I noticed that many customers would like me, and many would get upset because of my untypical driving. Some upset customers would give me advice on how to be aggressive to everyone on the road, whether or not it was warranted, so that I could get to destinations with a little bit more aggressiveness. It was interesting to see many customers advocating the harsh driving of taxicabs, in order to get to a destination faster even when there was no need to hurry. Maybe being inside a taxicab and having the taxi driver allow control of the taxicab mentally prompted many customers to become more aggressive. I soon realized that an angry taxi driver could be more threatening to a walking or a driving murderer on the road than the police itself.

Benefits of living in the Bay Area - you can avoid taxis and love the subways

As for me, one of the benefits of living in the Bay Area in Northern California is to use the BART subway systems, and not have to worry about taxi drivers and their time schedules. Of course, if I ever notice a taxi driver driving normally or if I am in a taxicab and the driver is driving slowly and following the rules while being considerate to people, I wonder if I have finally found Travis Bickle.

You can try to run me over, but you can’t stop me from getting to my movie on time! Long live the previews!

So, there you have it: 5 random ways many taxi drivers cause a lot of stress for other people on or around the road, and some of my direct and indirect personal experiences. Can you think of any other points? Do you have any questions or comments about the above points or this topic in general?

Thank you for reading.

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Why is it that when you offer help to someone voluntarily, it is sometimes appreciated by others, but when you do not offer help, you are looked down upon by many people? Anytime I help someone, I think about it. I wonder why I am helping, as I do not like helping out of obligation to anyone else. Obligation to society? Obligation to religion? Obligation to others? No, no and no. I am obligated to values, and I like to be obligated to those values that I realize are important because of my understanding and experience of and in life. As I wrote before, I can remember many times when I helped someone and I did not feel happy at all, and some of the responses I got from others shed some more light on the topic.

If we help others because we feel it is voluntary and we are doing something that we consider nice even though we are not obligated to, then our focus is probably on trying to see if others can benefit from our help. If we help others because we feel it is an obligation or because others may consider us to be rude if we do not help others, then our focus is probably on helping because it is an obligation.

Why is there usually no ground where there is no judgment passed on the behavior of a person who does not offer help to a stranger in a non-critical situation? Picking up a dropped pen for someone is nice and voluntary, but not picking it up on purpose is bad and rude. How can someone be innocent and selfless solely because they volunteer, when not volunteering results in many people in the society labeling that same person as being bad in some manner?

Is helping others in non-critical things an obligation?

Is the concept of helping supposed to exist because we can do it anytime we feel like it, or does it exist because others around us will consider it a nice gesture? What do you think?

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or opinion about this. Thank you.

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1. Laundry

   If you share any laundry machine with any of your neighbors, you can easily annoy them. Leave your clothes in the washer or the dryer, and do not take them out for hours. The next person who wants to do laundry will probably check repeatedly, every half hour or so, to see if you picked up your clothes.

   I currently have many laundry options, including shared laundry with a few neighbors. I decided to do laundry while talking to a friend in Europe. After washing my clothes, I noticed someone else’s clothes in the dryer. I waited for that neighbor to come and pick up the clothes. After almost 4 hours of waiting, I knocked at my neighbor’s door and asked politely if she could help. She had just woken up from sleep, sincerely apologized and took out the clothes from the dryer. That was fine and really nice of her. I told my friend all of this, and he said I should blog about it. This very post is because of that friend and that situation.

   I put my clothes in the dryer for 70 minutes and told my friend I was going to take a nap. I woke up very late, about 2 hours after the dryer had finished drying. I went to the laundry room and noticed the same neighbor waiting for me to take out my clothes from the dryer so she could put her newly washed clothes in it. In my friend’s view, I became the very inconvenience for a person that I may have felt only a few hours ago from that very person. That was a good example of how sometimes a random thing, like sleeping a bit longer than usual, can result in others being inconvenienced even though we did not intend to. When I talked to my friend again and told him what had happened, he could not stop laughing. I wonder if he is going to make fun of me using that example forever.

2. Car

   If you and your neighbors have a car, you can annoy them by parking in weird ways to make sure they have a hard time entering or leaving the parking area. Park in the middle of the driveway, or park very close to their car so that they cannot get in it easily.

   Someone has to go to work? Big deal. Let them learn new driving skills, or let them come to your door to make you move the car. Someone has an emergency? Well, if they have an emergency, they will come looking for me and then I can move the car. I had an emergency 4 nights ago and had to leave instantly. A car was blocking my way, and I had never seen that car before. After trying different neighbors, one of them finally came out and moved the car. In an emergency situation where you have to be somewhere immediately around midnight to help someone, arriving 25 minutes late can sometimes be bad. This brings us to the next point, which is…

3. Your friends

   If your friends come over, make sure you let them do whatever they please. Do not keep an eye on their activities, and if you do notice them inconveniencing your neighbors in any manner, do not tell them anything unless the neighbor comes and asks you about it.

   Friends are making a mess? Who cares. Friends are supposedly forever, neighbors can move anytime. Friends are using other people’s laundries or blocking driveways? Who cares. Friends should have fun, and neighbors should stay away. Friends are being loud? Who cares. Friends can be loud in your place so you can be loud in their’s. That brings us to the next point, which is….

4. Neighbor’s privacy spots

   One of the best ways to annoy your neighbors is to be invade their privacy. The entire area is someone’s property, and not your neighbor’s. Even if your neighbor owns it all, they do not own the right to your body, which you can position and direct to do many things.

   Hover around your neighbor’s car while they are in it. Have loud barbeque right by their window. Use flashlights and scream to points things in every direction in the middle of the night and make sure they notice it by their window.

5. Favors

   Ask your neighbors for favors, and then make them regret that they decided to help you. Whatever they do for you, directly or indirectly, abuse such a thing to not directly hurt them but to abuse the actual favor.

   I recently start giving free wifi access to some of my new neighbors who asked for it. They are not paying anything for a $60+ package. One of the neighbors knows how downloading and bandwidth works, and he downloads thousands of gigabytes of movies and other things every few days. He leaves his laptop on and simply goes out to party, leaving me to have an internet connection that suffers at random times during the day. Long live the “Click here to disconnect this wireless user” button.

So, there you have it. If you want to annoy your neighbors, try one of the 5 above techniques, and your neighbors will surely love you in ways you probably never want them to.

Have you or do you know someone who has experienced similar things?

What do you think? Have you run into anything similar or know someone who has? I found Stacee’s housing and neighbors related posts to be very good examples of how some neighbors and roommates can be continuously annoying. You may find them interesting too. Sorry you had to go through that Stacee!

Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it. I have to stop writing now, as I notice that wifi guy to be hogging the entire bandwidth again. Time to find the “Click here to disconnect this wireless user” button.

[update: August 29th, 1:34 pm PST] My friend told me, while he was laughing, that he was laughing at the situation and would never laugh at me. Therefore, for the 3rd paragraph under the list subheading “Laundry“, I have changed the sentence “When I talked to my friend again and told him what had happened, he could not stop laughing at me” to “When I talked to my friend again and told him what had happened, he could not stop laughing“, removing the “at me” part. Thanks Robin. [end of update]

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To help you decide the answer or give you more information about the nature of this question, I would like to present to you 5 random benefits of meeting distant relatives in person and 5 random benefits of meeting them online. If you had to meet your distant relatives in person, your choices could be to walk, drive, take the bus, horse, train, plane, ship, etc. For chatting online, you could type things via chats or e-mails, having voice chats, do webcam, etc. For this question, I would like for you to keep two things in mind.

5 random benefits of meeting distant relatives in person

1. Meeting a distant relative face to face can show your willingness to know them more. Only chatting with them online may show that you do not consider them important enough to go visit them.
2. Can result in more interaction between family members
3. An offline presence can leave a greater memory impact on many people than an online conversation
4. Hanging out with actual family members can also enable one to help them in small ways, like helping in cooking, helping clean, etc, which results in more family bonding

5 random benefits of meeting distant relatives online

1. Can removes a lot of nervousness that may happen because of meeting relatives for the first time, because of past arguments with them, etc
2. Can allow one to talk more informally than is possible online, regardless of the age of the other person
3. Saves time and money, specially if you are not rich or do not have a lot of time to go meet distant relatives at times when they are not doing anything else
4. Online, many awkward situations can be ignored. For example, one can get to know someone online a bit more and then know them online

Do you prefer having your distant relatives live virtually inside your computer, or do you prefer them living in an offline place where you could go meet them in person?

So, do you prefer communicating with your distant relatives online, or do you prefer meeting them in person?

Please let me know what you think. Thank you for reading. I really appreciate it.

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[update August 26th, 2006 - 9:30 pm PST] Ronald asked below in his comment if I meant physical or mental distance by the word “distant relatives.” I have clarified that in the article, thanks. [/update]

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