How Sad

Oh, God. My neighbor just said she'd never been to the National Harbor (which is only 15 minutes away), but she's driven through it because it was too expensive. What a pity. Imagine life like that. Walking through, but never getting to experience it.

How sad. How pathetic.

The Fires of Pompeii

 As you should know, if you're made of awesome, the new season of Doctor Who with Matt Smith comes on Easter. I've been catching up on some old episodes of DW, and I came across The Fires of Pompeii. 
  For those who haven't seen it, here's a sort-of-brief summary. It's in white so you can see where my INCREDIBLE ANALYTICAL SKILLS SKILLZZZ come in handy in yellow again.

   The Doctor and Donna arrive in what the Doctor believes to be Rome in the first century AD. After an earthquake and witnessing a nearby mountain begin to smoulder, he realises he has in fact materialised in Pompeii on 23 August, AD 79, one day before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. When he and Donna returns to the TARDIS' location, he is told it was sold to a Lucius Caecilius, a marble sculptor.

The episode's antagonists are the Pyrovile, giant rock-like creatures resembling golems whose home planet was "lost". They operate secretly; the Sybilline Sisterhood act as their proxies. They use the Sisterhood, which incorporates a high priestess and her acolytes, Spurrina, and Thalina, to make prophecies while slowly converting them to stone. The Sisterhood is inducting Caecilius' daughter Evelina and is allied to the local augur Lucius. The Doctor is disturbed by their knowledge of his and Donna's personal lives, and by Lucius' latest commission, a marble circuit board.

The Doctor breaks into Lucius' home and discovers that he is creating an energy converter. He is accosted by Lucius, who sends a Pyrovile to kill the Doctor. The confusion allows the Sisterhood to kidnap Donna briefly; the Doctor follows them and frees Donna. They escape into the Sisterhood's hypocaust system and travel into the centre of Mount Vesuvius.

Mount Vesuvius is being used by the Pyrovile to convert the human race to Pyroviles, in an effort to conquer Earth. The Doctor realises the volcano will not erupt if the energy converter is running, and with Donna's encouragement, subsequently switches it off, triggering the eruption of Vesuvius, considering Pompeii's destruction and the death of its population the lesser of two evils. The Doctor attempts to leave, but Donna convinces him to save Caecilius and his family, whom he then takes on board the TARDIS. The family, The Doctor, and Donna then watch Pompeii's destruction from a vantage point. The Doctor assures the family that Pompeii is never forgotten before leaving with Donna. As he watches the destruction, Caecilius comments that it is the wrath of Vulcan and coins the word "volcano" to describe it.

The last scene takes place six months later in Rome. Caecilius' family are shown to be successful: Caecilius is running a profiting business, Evelina has a social life in comparison to her seclusion in Pompeii, and his son Quintus (Francois Pandolfo) has given up the wasteful life he led in Pompeii and is training to become a doctor. Before Quintus leaves, he pays tribute to the family's household gods, whose statues are in the form of the Doctor, Donna and the TARDIS.

    Now, the part that interested me was when Donna refused to leave Pompeii without saving someone.  Because the destruction of Pompeii was a fixed point in time, the Doctor couldn't/shouldn't meddle with it. That allows for this epic scene where Donna insists that they save somebody and the Doctor insists that they can't. I think the most heart-wrenching moment is when they flee to the TARDIS and Caecilius' family beg him to save them, and the Doctor just looks on and keeps going.
    To be fair, the Doctor (a timelord) always warned Donna (who was human, if that wasn't clear) off. He made it clear that it wasn't gonna be a barrel of laughs, and she chose to come anyway.
    And then, it made me pity the Doctor, because he would love to go back in time to his home planet, Gallifrey, and save his family and his people, but he simply can't.
    To get to the point, our humanity is incredible. Our ability to have compassion is awesome, and I do use that term literally in the biblical sense, worthy of awe. It's more vigorous than empathy, because it makes us want do something, to alleviate someone else's suffering. So, now, I guess I'm gonna end up writing something else about Human Nature or the Human Condition or Nature vs. Nurture. Whichever.

  Adieu, cher.

My Generation

 Okay, so this post is about my generation [insert song by The Who here]. This partly came about because I've been reading books about Woodstock and partly because there were student protests over education budget cuts and tuition hikes across the US. This poor girl got her face slammed into a cop car as she got arrested (for no good reason). On the news you could hear her screaming and shouting "I didn't do anything!".


Poor girl.


     Anyway, a recent survey found that over 50% of adults find young people terrifying. In the survey, people were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with statements given to them. 54% of people believe that the young people are beginning to "behave like animals". More than a third of those questioned also said that the streets were "infested by young people", and 43% said that something should be done to "protect the adults".
    So, basically, the older generation are petrified of us! And, to be fair, shouldn't they be? I mean, everyone knows we're the knife-wielding, hoodie-wearing generation that's obsessed with violent video games and that isn't going to amount to anything. Right?
          Today citizens as a whole as well as people who work with children live in fear of youth in our homes and schools and on our streets. While society loves their attractive bodies, youthfulness and commercial firepower we also, vilify adolescents as a noncontributing drain on the economy and our democracy. In the mainstream media, young people are most often portrayed as self-absorbed and apathetic, disinterested in the common good or in advancing social goals.
          Popular contemporary beliefs about adolescents are different from historical narratives; in the past youth were portrayed as "the future" and the "leaders of tomorrow"; today they are seen as "a source of worry, not potential," contributing to a fear of adolescents, especially racial and ethnic minorities.In turn this racist and adultist perspective informs urban law enforcement, public schools, and social services. Sociologists have suggested that much of the current spread of the fear of youth is due to "adult anxiety over the shifting racial mix in the general population." The effects of sexism are similarly reported to be amplified by ephebiphobia.However, New York University professor Pedro Noguera has suggested that the fear of youth extends beyond color boundaries, as "skateboarders, punks, even straight-laced suburban teenagers can evoke anxiety among adults by congregating in large numbers in places deemed off-limits to youth."

The ability of youth to participate throughout society is seen as compromised because of the fear of youth, and is often disguised as a paternalism or protectionism among adults.

       But let's take a look at the generation that's calling us foul, cruel, and ruthless. *waves* Hi, old people. Isn't it your generation that refuses to plan more than three months ahead in business and got us into this recession? Isn't it your generation that started a pointless war and sent our generation to fight in it? Isn't it your generation that refuses to look past the bottom line when it comes to the environment and investing in new forms of renewable energy? Isn't it your generation that is, quite frankly, going to be handing us a broken world?


        




Thankfully,  my generation has things like YouTube and blogs that can give us a voice to defend ourselves

Social Awkwardness or Potentially Falling?

Whether nature, or nurture, or a diplomatic mixture of both, I'll never know. Whatever the cause I've found that in terms of conversation and small talk with mild acquaintances, I cannot be any less interested. Yet when it comes to eavesdropping on complete strangers I am fascinated to the point of falling out of my chair straining to hear. The result is social awkwardness during the former, and potential physical injury on the latter, dependant on the height of the chair and my ability to get my arms and hands in the appropriate position to break my fall.


I'll never cease to be amazed by some of my socially-talented friends, who I can leave alone after introducing them to someone with whom nothing perceptible might be had in common, only to return ten minutes later and find them slapping one another on the back like old friends and rounding out the interaction with an inside joke I'm not even aware of.

I've stared long and hard at many strangers in vain attempts to figure out the secret of common ground and have found, time and time again, that none is to be found.

I'll admit the blame lies solely on my shoulders. I don't have much interest in many of the subjects serving as a launching pad for successful small talk. No major fascination with professional sports (although I'll never not watch men's soccer, can I get an Amen?) I don't watch a lot of popular television shows, which tends to make people uncomfortable. I assure you I'm not taking some sort of stand against anything. I just never watch television. I've come to understand the characters on Jersey Shore are endlessly entertaining, and a certain television star drops himself in the middle of nowhere and drinks his own urine until he can find a way out of abominable terrain, but every time I fist pump at parties people look at me as though I'm missing the point. Trying to discuss the nutritional merit of drinking ones own urine also results in suspicious glances.

I'm looking forward to World Cup soccer, but everyone hates soccer, except every other country other than the United States, where I happen to reside. Perhaps I would really shine in conversations held with British people. We might have everything in the world in common. I could say things like “I love soccer and fish and chips and Winston Churchill!” and we would all have a smashing good time. The group of them would compliment me on my strapping good looks, cutting wit, and snappy dress. I would tell them that in America, I am very popular and am good at talking to people. They would believe my unabashed lies with trusting adoration. I would make comparisons concerning British vs. American culture and we would have a good laugh about how everything they do is silly and about how everything Americans do is right. Then they would emulate me in an attempt to be more American. I would explain to them that the only annoying thing about living in America is our governments obstinate refusal to allow the general public to own machine guns and everyone has to just make do with the wimpy little revolvers and automatic rifles placed in our hands at birth. They would all agree, and try to figure out how to change the laws in Britain so everyone there can own machine guns too, even their pets. I’ll explain that American citizens are the type of people who train killer whales to allow us to stand on their noses and are shocked when the whale tries to eat us. Despite how well we are getting along I can’t help but sabotage myself eventually. I’d first rouse the groups anger by mentioning Big Ben’s inability to compare to many U.S. landmarks.

“In the U.S.A. we don’t need a clock. We tell everyone what time it is.”

The Brits might let this one slide, and blame it on the booze, but an off-color remark about the Queen would surely have me thrown bodily from the premise. Even in my own fantasy scenario’s I find a way to make social interaction awkward.

I've found that social encounters boil down to three steps.

Step 1: What kind of shit do you like?

Step 2: This is the kind of shit that I like.

Step 3: Does any of this shit have anything in common?

If you check yes at the step 3 box congratulations! You've made a new friend. If no, run! Because they will want to start talking to you about politics, religion, or the space program.