Today's been a lot

[Antarctic Termite]

Wake up to a lot of death

Argue with parents

Spend the entire day in sudden midsummer heat

A friend's self esteem crashes and I feel bad about myself for not doing more than I can

lots of fuckin angsty romance shit

My other friends are offline so I can't vent

Can't vent about half of it anyway because it's a private matter and trust is a fragile thing

League's newest patch is shit so I can't game it out

Still have homework to do

Still have NaNo to do

Something about my teeth is aching?

All this contrasting a lot of other shit that actually went well. Today's been more eventful than my average week and I don't want to cry now about trivial stuff, fuck it.

[Vilageidiotx]

I woke up, got pocket dialed by my grandma, and now am eating a handful of gummy livesavers for breakfast.

[AlteredTundra]

I got a new dog and played the shit out with it.

Oh and did a lot of facebooking because I have nothing better else to do with my free time.

[Dinh AaronMk]

I unpacked shit at work, went home early because MSU and U of M game today so we'll be dead as fuck, and then I had to do more sorting of garbage in the garage and then moved filing cabinets downstairs.

And then I played vidya.

[genghismike]

Lol wake up to a lot of death?

You must not keep up with the world, eh?

[Halo]

:/ hugs? Hope you're feeling better brah. Seems everyone just wants to talk about their own day.

[Dinh AaronMk]

Lol wake up to a lot of death?

You must not keep up with the world, eh?

@genghismike

That or he's Parisian and works the night shift.

[Antarctic Termite]

Lol wake up to a lot of death?

You must not keep up with the world, eh?

@genghismike

i'm so confused

i was the first of anyone i know to find out about Paris at 5:30 in my timezone, about two hours after the news first broke from france, and I learned about Beirut and Baghdad a few minutes afterwards

Are you talking about the continuing violence in Iraq/Syria/Afghanistan/other places? Because yes, I'm aware about that, but it's not often that the media is this loud about acts of terror (whitepeoplebias.jpg). All of my friends were worried or grieving, especially since we had recently hosted exchange students from France and it took a while to confirm they were safe. I even have a roleplaying buddy in France. Yes, worse happened in Kenya earlier this year and continues to happen elsewhere and we should all care a fuck of a lot more about it, but having everything explode like that is still distressing.

:/ hugs? Hope you're feeling better brah. Seems everyone just wants to talk about their own day.

@Halo

I was just venting because I couldn't do it anywhere else, but it's appreciated. Thanks.

[genghismike]

it's not often that the media is this loud about acts of terror

@Antarctic Termite

That's the point I was getting at. It's unfortunate as hell that the media is extremely biased, racial rifts divide the world, and countless innocents are losing their lives. I don't mean to say the events in France are not deserving of attention or sympathy, I simply find it rather strange how despite the fact that the ongoing violence continues to claim lives, we pick certain people to sympathize with and tend to do so by utilizing flags on facebook profile pics. I've just kinda become numb to it all and convinced myself the world is filled with hate filled morons out to destroy one another (on all sides >.>).

That being said, sorry to hear it's impacted you in such a way. Well wishes to those involved, kudos to those who helped during the time of crisis, and hope for a brighter future... sometime or another.

[Vilageidiotx]

<Snipped quote by Antarctic Termite>

That's the point I was getting at. It's unfortunate as hell that the media is extremely biased, racial rifts divide the world, and countless innocents are losing their lives. I don't mean to say the events in France are not deserving of attention or sympathy, I simply find it rather strange how despite the fact that the ongoing violence continues to claim lives, we pick certain people to sympathize with and tend to do so by utilizing flags on facebook profile pics. I've just kinda become numb to it all and convinced myself the world is filled with hate filled morons out to destroy one another (on all sides >.>).

That being said, sorry to hear it's impacted you in such a way. Well wishes to those involved, kudos to those who helped during the time of crisis, and hope for a brighter future... sometime or another.

@genghismike

It's rather straight forward, really. As @Antarctic Termite pointed out, there are more connections between us and France then there are between us and Syria, at least in terms of familiarity. I think if you asked most people about Syria or Kenya, they wouldn't say that it doesn't matter at all, they would certainly sympathize, but those places are further away to us.

Not to mention, of course, that middle eastern violence isn't ignored. It's in the news all the time. When the War in Syria started, it was in the forefront. But then it kept going and started to feel normal.

[KnightShade]

<Snipped quote by genghismike>

It's rather straight forward, really. As @Antarctic Termite pointed out, there are more connections between us and France then there are between us and Syria, at least in terms of familiarity. I think if you asked most people about Syria or Kenya, they wouldn't say that it doesn't matter at all, they would certainly sympathize, but those places are further away to us.

Not to mention, of course, that middle eastern violence isn't ignored. It's in the news all the time. When the War in Syria started, it was in the forefront. But then it kept going and started to feel normal.

@Vilageidiotx

Also Middle Eastern violence is reported to the exclusion of other Middle Eastern stories. We get reporting on all aspects of our own country, a nuanced view of our neighbour countries and economic interests. Elsewhere violence, and (often violent) politics are most newsworthy. Without news of a countries day to day workings, we see violence as its day to day workings. Conflict doesn't necessarily have to be ongoing in a country for us to view it as a more savage place where violence is normal.

[Dinh AaronMk]

Living near to one of the few places in the US with the largest Arab-American populations one hears a lot about what goes on in the Middle East. The bombings in Beirut made it big here in Michigan due in part to the large Lebanese population in the Dearborne and Detroit area. They're enough that the local news defaults to having to cover it, and then it gets more coverage because the local Lebanese leadership begins talking about it and iterating why it's really rather important.

On the local NPR station too they were talking about it. Contrary to common belief about the region, Beirut has often been an island of stability in a currently insane place. Beirut was one of the more accesible cities in the Syria area prior to the civil war and even through it. For it to be targeted and for its prevailing tourism industry to put the city under threat like it has actually threatens Lebanon a lot more than Paris' attack does to France.