Tina Meier’s Grief, But Also What I Am Not Hearing

I am usually the last person you will hear who will criticize someone who is dedicated in stopping bully and bigotry. For goodness sack, I am the Gay/Straight Alliance Advisor for my work and actually have gotten death threats before! Actually, the only group I am against at the moment is Rachel’s Challenge because they are using the Columbine tragedy as their mask for crazy Christian views.

But I also have a question for Tina Meier. If you really want change with cyber bullying, why are you not admitting to your parenting mistakes and target parents rather than children about internet use?

See… here is what I do not get. This mother let her mentally disturbed daughter play on the internet by herself? Ok… maybe not completely disturbed, but the young teen was on medication for depression and had a history of this!! Oh… this girl’s father too. Let us not forget. This is not only the fault of the mother!!

You see people… If this Tina lady and her former husband had been parenting and not letting their children on the internet without their supervision, you could ever blame a suicide on the other crazy lady who harassed the teen. If the computer had been in the living room and the children only allowed to be online with supervision, the attacks would have never happened.

Has Tina realized this? From everything I have seen, she is trying to educate children and young adults. Not adults who are trying to parent. What she needs to do is talk to parents. She needs to own up to her and her ex-husband’s mistakes and try to train PARENTS!

In fact, I do go as far to say that these Meier parents need to be charged with child abuse. I have no qualms with the other lady’s charges. She needs to be charged. But so do the Meier parents. This would have never happened if they had been parenting. Let’s face it. This was an adult to young teen attack. Not a teen to teen initially. This girl even violated myspace rules, lied about her age, and created an account. No liability for myspace. Sorry people.

Call me harsh, but this is the truth. Teen Meier might have still committed suicide. That is a fact. The girl was depressed and on medication. But the fact also is that the parents were not doing their job and being responsible for their child. They let it run wild (albeit on the internet) and that child paid the consequences. Just like a child left alone at a pool could drown. A baby left on its stomach may die of sids, and the list can go on.

Parents. DO YOUR JOB. TAKE THE BLAME FOR NOT DOING IT. Learn about the internet. If you do not know… do not let your child on, especially alone!! Would you let your child take a drug you never heard of because everyone else was doing it? NO! Get real. Parent.

Remember the 70’s ~ There is no Global Oil Shortage

Funny how we love to fight mob crime. Eliot Ness and such. We are against the 21st century mob (gangs). But funny how we will let our hands be tied to the biggest mob of all time (sorry Italians). What am I speaking to?…. OPEC.

It is a mob. They do not let the economy work with supply and demand. They decided how much to produce. They decide the price. A mob. I have read many statistics and can not be sure which ones are truly correct, but these next figures seem the most reasonable. If the model of supply and demand was adhered to, without any major “shortages”, barrels of oil would cost around $10. It is right now around $140 I think today. Yikes.

Just like in the 70’s. Now I know oil will not last forever. But we are not going to run out tomorrow. Even if we do not create any new oil fields. Duh people. How quickly we forget. Now prices might be more expensive and we could see some shortages in the short term if we ignore OPEC and say, “getting our oil elsewhere boys.” And I mean boys because women and treated like dirt in those countries. Actually dirt is more useful than women. Let us do business with Venusians.

Ah, but they are ruled by a dictator. So Bushy says no. Then tell me how most Saudi Arabia countries are not dictatorships and oligarchy’s? They are, but they have stuff we “need” and will deal with them. This whole thing is sooooo stupid.

Remember the 1970’s people…. Remember the 1970’s.

The jobs you quit, Juno, and Folk Life Festival

Today, during a lovely, but tiring bicycle ride, I decided to pop on down to the Folklife Festival in Seattle. That means, I am almost obligated to visit some of my former co-workers/employees at PSC. Jun would kill me if I was that close and did not say hi. Plus I have not talked with her in ages.

I always find it interesting when I visit a place where I worked close to 10 years. I left with people intimidating and sexually harassing me. People were not appreciative of my work. It was a place that could suck your soul away. I left early and took a financial hit. I wanted to work two full time jobs for for 2-3 years to get out of debt. But for my sanity I had to leave.

When ever I see my old boss, the first thing he usually says is “Want a job?” I always say how much you gonna pay me. Sadly enough, If he were to really tell me, I know it would be less than I make as a teacher. That is sad. Not for profits take heed… If you can not get a budget to pay people good wages… you will get crap. And good people will have to leave. All you will get are has beens who could not make it in the corporate world.

As much as I would like to enjoy festivals like Folklife, I can not. Working that that silly museum has ruined it for me. Tons of people, not from the city, and not really enough room. I walked through the center grounds, but decided to go on my merry way with a bike ride through Magnolia, the locks, and Ballard. It was nice, but I am not used to long rides and was dead tired when I got home. Hence, I am awake now.

But I know I will hear from my mom. I justed checked the weather and news and there was a shooting at Folklife. Another reason for my mom to complain and harass me. Ug.

A co-worker lent me the movie Juno. I had heard lots of stuff about it and how it totally was true to high school. I have to say that it was interesting. Some things I liked, some I did not. I did not like how the girl chose to keep the baby. I did not like how the planned parenthood like place was awful and disrespectful. It could have been done better.

The husband of the adopting couple creeped me out. I thought he was some sort of weird pedophile. They needed to change that part. I thought the wife adoptive lady was waaaay to high strung. And the ending was not realistic. Not about Juno and Bleeker. That was a nice touch. SPOILER…. But the wife being able to still adopt as a lady getting a divorce. Realistically, Juno would have had to keep her baby and Bleeker and he would have to raise it. There. That’s it… that is real life.

A perfect day in Seattle. Low 70’s and a little windy, and now at 12 midnight… rain. Ug. That is Seattle for you. I have a party tomorrow that starts early and I hope it is not raining tomorrow.

Are There Truly Good Police?

The other way I had to make my way downtown to get some birthday presents for people. When I left Lush, There were the Seattle Police Horse patrol. They were drinking star bucks and talking with people. Their horses were beautiful. I have never had the opportunity to ride a horse, but one day I will. One horse guy was missing. I was hoping it was Officer Tom who used to work at the science center before the admin got stupid and got rid of the police in return for fake security.

It was at the science center where I changed my mind about some police officers. We had the best. They were good. I just wish all police people could have been like them. Then there was the time when I was deathly ill and my car broke down on a busy street. The Seattle police man was the most helpful and even let me sit in his car until the tow company came. He could have been real mean, but he was not.

Even though Officer Tom was not with this horse patrol, I watched for awhile and saw the police give kids stickers and talked to the public about the horse. There was even a woman police lady. When I was walking home, I passed by some Seattle Police on bicycles. They waved and said hi! It was really nice. I think the addition of the bike patrols has been a really good thing. I left safe and felt there was help around, but not like the man was watching over me. What I saw that day is how all police should be.

And they are not. The Jerk Snohomish Police focus on all the wrong things. In general, they are lazy and do not do their job. The Shoreline Police are a big joke. And the joke is that the only people they pull over are non white folks. For really. I lived in Shoreline for 2 plus years, and trust me, never a white person pulled over. There are a lot of white people who live in Shoreline.

I am very very thankful for the good police people. Who know their jobs are really customer service jobs. Who know how to take care of bad people or people who are making bad choices, but in the end, remember even they are people too and deserve as much dignity as possible. And to the Jerk police…. you suck!

Now Bush Gives More Federal Aid!

Bush has infused the student loan market with more loans because private lenders like studentloan corp (citigroup) and others are giving very few loans anymore. This is oh so funny because of what Bush allowed in 2002-2003.

There was a huge dot.com slump. People were going back to school. Too many for the Republicans comfort. So they lowered how much student loan money a grad student could get. That meant that I was around $4000 a quarter short on tuition. And that did not include any books I had to purchase. They only way I could pay for this was with a credit card. So two years later, I had a ton of money on my credit card. I had to work 2 full times jobs for over a year to get my credit cards low enough so I could get a personal loan to get rid of the credit card debt. It was awful.

So now all I can do is laugh. As I hear young people complain that they will have to work part time to pay for college and that is not how it is supposed to be. Oh how they do not know what is like to work a full time job, a part time job, and go to school full time. I can’t stand their whining. Cry me a River.

I have a feeling that these infusion is just to cover what was out there the last few years. There needs to be more. There needs to be more incentive plans (i.e. if teachers teach 6 years after their initial schooling and certificate, they do not have to pay the money back) and other things to help people along. My pay might be hella low as a teacher, but I would be more than comfortable if I did not have any student loans. The hurdles are just too high.

The Most Friendly People

I am trying to get back into shape. After an IT band issue in my left knee, Bursitis in my right knee, and other issues. While I have done a little bicycle riding this year, it has been very early in the morning and on icky days. Today is half way decent and I went out across I-90. It was great. It felt good. And what was even cooler was I forgot how nice cyclists are.

Now I know there are some huge bicycle jerks out there. They make me mad. If you are a car person and get angry at them, think about how the fellow cyclists feel. They are jerks to us too and give us a bad rap. Makes me angry.

But a majority of cyclists seem to be the friendliest people alive. I do not know how many smiles and hellos I got today. I have never been good at hills and I was almost at the top of one at the end of my ride and this lady cheered me on. She said, “Alright… you can do it. You are almost there!” And it was sincere and heartfelt. Who does this in America? Cyclists do. While cycling is a very individual thing for me now (none of the people I know who cycle want to do it with me anymore), I am never completely alone. If it looks like you are at the side of the rode and need help, everyone who goes by asks if you need help. I even had someone help me change a tire once before I could really do it on my own. How great.

Maybe it is the freedom and independence bicycling gives a person that makes them so happy. It is the one thing that people of all ages can do. It is great! It has really made the month for me and I look forward to doing it quite a bit again!

Wake Up Seattle and Learn How To Drive

There are many other places I would prefer to drive. Boston, New York, and LA to name a few. I hate driving in Seattle. And I have to do it all the time. I will even expand. Washington State. People do not drive well. It is even worse when it starts to snow. Forget about it actually sticking. Here is my list of things for today people need to remember:

1). Right of way at stops signs! If you both come to a stop sign, the person on your direct right goes first. Do not wait forever. Speed dial to zero and go. That is the most you should ever wait.

2). Freeway on ramps means get to 60 and FAST. I know not all cars can get to zero to 60 in like 3 seconds, but by the time you are where the juncture of the on ramp meets the freeway, you should be at 60. Especially if the traffic goes that fast. I am tired of everyone going like 30 and then trying to speed up on the freeway. Dangerous

3). Merging means Every Other One! Getting onto the freeway when traffic is slower means you need to prepare to enter from the on ramp between cars on the free way. Too many times cheaters and idiots zoom ahead to the “front” and cut other cars off, get in front of people who have already merged and cause the whole lane to stop. If people “merged” easily and every other one, then traffic would not come to a stand still for a couple of minutes. That is why I and others stick out to the right side even when we merge because of cheaters.

Freeway is 60 or higher. In Washington anyways. If you can not go 60, then do not enter the freeway. I am all for speed limits and saving gas, but the freeway is 60 and you better be going that. If you are a right at 60 person, then make sure you are in the light lane. 60-65 then in the middle lanes. Leave the left lane for passing and fast drivers. I know this is impossible in some places on the free way in the Seattle area, but those are exceptions.

Those are some of the most frustrating things I run into. It makes me quite an angry panda when people are stupid. And if you do not drive right, I will honk at you. I am not passive aggressive silent and try to show you with my car, I just honk at you. Get used to it. And stop driving like an idiot!!!!