Monday, April 25, 2005

Five Things I Hate

Oh, the dangers of non-blogging weekends. Apparently there's a meme floating around right now where people are sharing five things that they hate, which people ordinarily enjoy. (If you are unfamiliar with the concept of a "meme," it is a topic which gets spread from blog to blog; essentially, like those forwarded quiz emails)

So, lest I be "unhip" in the blogosphere (heh, probably too late for that), here are the five things that I hate:

1. Instant Messenger
I despise it. I mean, don't get me wrong, chatting and instant communication with friends and coworkers is great. Being able to multitask or get instant information from lab partners has been invaluable to me.

But the whole thing is ridiculous. Maybe I just wasn't built for the computer age (a strange thing coming from someone of my generation), but when I sit at the computer and see text flash back and forth, I have the hardest time equating it with real human contact. I don't often remember to put up "away messages." I'll often wander off in the middle of "conversations," because I'm trying to do homework or clean the house, or something more important than inane chatter on "the box."

And boy, does that ever tick people off. Which is one of the reasons I hate instant messenger. If you really want to talk to me, if it's something important, call me. If communicating with me is really that important to you, you can pick up your dang phone and hear my voice.

Ah, but then people couldn't talk to multiple people, or simply look at my away message all the time without actually having to talk to me. Stalking: It's not just for weirdos anymore!

2. Religious Do-nothings
You may wonder what I mean by the phrase. Let me explain. It's rather a phenomenon of modern Christianity (perhaps other generations suffered from this as well, though I have not the learning to know one way or the other) that we like to talk. We talk and talk and talk. We talk about how much God is doing and all of the great things He is working on. We talk about all of the wonderful things we could be doing in his name. We talk about the possibilities for ministry, the good works we could do, that others do, and so on ad infinitum. And yet it all comes down to sound and fury signifying nothing.

For all of our talk, we return with lame excuses. "Hey, we should work at the soup kitchen this weekend! Will I be there? Uh, no. I, uh . . . I have homework to do. And I need to go visit my family. I have plans already." It's a major problem. We like to talk, we like to plan, we like to think about how great the ideas are we can come up with for serving God, but when the time comes to give our faith feet and make it walk, we wimp out. We'd rather be self-serving and insulate ourselves. If we don't have to face real problems, then we can live our life like none of that really exists.

And yet, I'm probably the worst of hypocrites when it comes to this, preaching against something I do as much as the next man. Lord, have mercy on me.

3. Online Gaming
Hey, abrupt change of subject. I hate online games. I hate them with a passion. Not just the MMORPGs (Massively-Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, for those not in the know), but the strategy and the shooter games, though for other reasons.

Primarily, I hate them because the majority of peope playing online are immature 13-year olds who have the mouths of sailors. They seem to get their thrills from being absolute jerks and telling you about it in ways that would make gangsta rappers blush. Why? Here's one theory (WARNING: Bad language!). Playing games with these people makes me want to hurt them badly.

That problem applies to both genres, but I can live with multiplayer gaming online otherwise. It's the MMORPGs that really bug me. You see, I like paying for a game once, then being able to enjoy it whenever I want for as long as I want. Not so with these. With these, you continue to pay for the privelege of playing the game, even after you paid $50 for the game in the first place. You shell out this money to play a game that has no point. It's not even a game. If it was a game, someone could win. But the only person who wins these games are the companies taking your money over and over.

Additionally, you can't play these games by yourselves. They make the games too hard to be played by people who can't stand the swearing 13 year olds. The games are mainly for stats/item junkies who want to get the best stuff, and you do so by spending your first 20 or so hours of game play killing rats and oversized fungi, just for the privelege of moving on to slightly larger rats. Eventually, you get to kill real monsters, but that's still only if you've taken on the patience to put up with the "other people" long enough to go on quests.

Count me out.

4. Smokers
This might seem like an obvious, and overplayed item, but public smoking just really steams my carrots (wow, that is really lame). It's not just the bizarreness of having "smoking" and "non-smoking" sections in restaurants when it's all the same air, or having to sit with people in those places who just light up without asking if anyone in their vicinity would mind them saturating the area with foul smelling carcinogens. It's the utter inesecability of public smoking.

For example, I can't walk to class without getting a faceful of smoke. It's awful. I'm glad they enacted the rule where smokers must remain 15 feet from the doors of all campus buildings, but good luck finding people who actually follow said rule. Even if I manage to leave a building without getting caught in the cloud of smoke that lingers with them outside the doorways, I always manage to end up walking just downwind of some other smoker taking the same path as me to class. They just blow their filth into the wind, and "WHOOSH!" . . . right into my face. Blechh. Keep it to yourselves, fellas.

5. Contrary Opinions
Don't get me wrong. I don't think everyone has to agree with me, and I can often times respect people who hold differing opinions from me, because I know that they hold their opinions in good conscience and reached their conclusions because of the reasoning they applied to the knowledge they had.

But sometimes . . . people just don't get it.

This really encompasses so much. It's the people who think that if you hold an opinion contrary to theirs, you must be some ignorant troglodyte who cannot think rationally about anything. It's the people who remain willfully ignorant of a subject because they are satisfied with their position, or the people who willfully ignore information in order to preserve their preconceived ideas. It's the people who are so deep into their ideas that they cannot possibly even conceive that they might be wrong about it; all argument with them becomes an exercise in futility, as they don't even take a moment to consider your ideas. It's the people who hold vehemently to their idea, but live in ways that completely contradict their idea (example: "peace" protesters who attack counter-protesters).

So, it's not that people believe or opine differently than I do. It's the people who do so in ridiculously silly ways that really frustrates me.

There you have it. Five things I hate. Maybe later I should do a "Five things I love" list just to bring some balance. I don't want my audience (that's you) to think I'm a crank.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say that this post made me laugh.....this is your best one yet.

I am so going to use "that steams my carrots" in a sentence today.

/angry fist at MMORPG

ding!

Anonymous said...

You can cite "peace" protestors who attack counter-protestors, but wouldn't a more apt example be "pro-lifers" who shoot doctors?

Anonymous said...

Nice Macbeth quote you slipped in under #2.

Or was that accidental?

Anonymous said...

I thought christian weren't supposed to hate.

I'm almost certain christians weren't supposed to inflict violence on a 13 year old (or even want to).

Are you sure you're a christian?

Anonymous said...

I thought christian weren't supposed to hate.

Are you sure you're a christian?


The unspoken implication is hyprocacy. Before deigning to cast the first stone, consider this.

God says clearly in the Bible that he hates. God himself is allowed hate when it is within the proper context: hatred of that which is wrong. God hates sin.

Yet we Christians, who follow this same God, are chided endlessly when we say we hate something that shouldn't be. Our distain within the same context God uses is unacceptable in the public eye.

Who, then, is the hypocrite?

Anonymous said...

Amen to #5 Hal. I also hate contrary opinions, but you have to remember that your opinion may be contrary and unfounded to someone else, and sometimes you might wrong...after all, we have all sinned and fall short...

Anyway I have only recently stumbled on your blog and some of your post suggest you are a follower of Christ our Lord. I hope you have repented and put your trust in Him. It will transform you!

Romans 3:23 --> John 3:16...by grace through faith alone!

Anonymous said...

You know what you need? A world filled with no one so that you can be happily alone for eternity. You and your religious hippocritical fiends.

Sheltered people like yourself make me sick on so many different levels. Even if i agree with your mmo comments.

Seriously grow some balls, and if you're a woman take some fucking pills cause i'm sure everyone is tired of your whining. Including the god you whine to every night. You should try talking to him instead of complaining, maybe thats why you're so unhappy.

You are not the only person on Earth so learn to share it. If you see a smoker then you move the hell away and avoid it like sin. They already need to be outside and usually freeze their nuts off for a fix. So how about you make a bit of effort and take the back door. Those poor cavemans and their cancer sticks eh. One day you will have an addiction too and pray that the world is on your side. KArma.

Pretty soon i'm going to have all my needs dictated by the government and assholes like you who have nothing better to do than force everyone else to live in your misery.

You're no better than the people you insult. Nor am i.