I had a dream

I had a dream last night where I applied to work at a sketchy dental clinic run in the parking garage underneith some mall.

The dentist, named Foster, was very polite, and was much more interested in talking to me than preforming the oral surgery he was in the middle of; to the point where his assistant had to remind him he was in the middle of something.

Sadly there were rules in place against hiring me, but I left my resume incase the rules change.

Tolerance--with a capital T, that rhymes with P and that stands for..........of fuck it I give up!

First I'll acknowledge that yes I know it's late, and I should be sleeping because I have an exam in the morning. But I'm not.

Instead I'm thinking about tolerance. The kind of tolerance dictionary.com defines as:

The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.

(The thing I love about blogs is I don't really have to give you any hard evidence or...you know...facts... I'm just spouting off my opinion and I like it.)

I ran across this other quote today, on a discussion on SKR's messageboard. In a post about christians sueing for the right to gay bash. It's originally from a south park episode:

Tolerant, but not stupid! Look, just because you have to tolerate something doesn't mean you have to approve of it! ... "Tolerate" means you're just putting up with it! You tolerate a crying child sitting next to you on the airplane or, or you tolerate a bad cold. It can still piss you off!

For the most part this isn't an issue; for better or for worse there are far more apathetic people than "hard-liners", but there are enough people who really believe in something out there that when they see something (or someone) who they feel is antithetical to who they are they need to confront it head on.

I don't think this confrontation is a bad thing, it's not hard to think of situations that would make me stand up and try and stop someone from being "evil" (to use a terribly ambiguous and unhelpful word).

The problem comes when these conflicts are ideological or philosophical I think. You see: I have NEVER seen one of these philosophical head on collisions change anyone's position on anything!

I have never read of a bigot who stooped her irrational hatred of whatever because someone pointed out it was "irrational and wrong". I have never heard of a liar who suddenly spouted only the truth because when someone called him on his falsehoods. And short of Ebenezer I have never seen greed become charity overnight.

I don't know why, but even rational people hold onto irrational ideas because they are more comfortable. Throwing someone's irrationality (from your point of view of course) back in their face only seems to piss people off and end the conversation.

I know I link this poem on the side bar thing there, but I want to point out one of it's lines that rings most true to me:

As far as possible without surrender / be on good terms with all persons.

As far as possible! Without surrender!

This means tolerance.

If you don't like what somebody says or does. Your choice.
If you feel it's your duty to try and "spread the truth" and "correct their mistakes". Great.
If you think it's going to happen the first time you tell them. Quit kidding yourself.

No, I think if people really want to introduce people to the "right" ideas you gotta do it slowly. You need to say "Hey cool you're different from me in these places". You need to talk to these people and who knows maybe befriend these people. You have to work up to "Hey look how my great ideas are working good for me, want to try them?".

The idea of a person who is more comfortable with the ideas shouted to them from pulpits and slurred drunkenly across bar tables by strangers; than the ideas they are currently working off in their own head is a little unsettling to me...(but hey, that's cool if it works for you ;) )

Even in an open honest discourse between friends I don't think I am going to change anyone's opinion the first time I throw an idea out there. I figure the best I can do is stick by my guns and keep telling people the truth (well, how I see it anyways)...and of course keep tolerating all those idiots who don't see it my way. :P

I should update often enough that Travis need not have to remind me!

Well.. turns out it's my birthday. (So far I've had more "happy birthday" messages from message boards than real people... we're only 3 hours in, I'm still hopeful ;) )

I was asked today

*in snooty announcer voice* Rob... you've just turned legal all over the world... what do you plan to do next??

turns out about the same as always. (though my actual reply was "send out a poorly timed e-mail inviting people to come to the Parktown at 10pm tomorrow?" And the invitation still stands, but since the only one who's likely to read this is Travis, and he's not in town, I'm not sure advertising here is all that effective.

I'd have never really thought about it, but turns out its possible to get out of touch with a person living in the same house. (Mostly finals are to blame I think.) It does help the searching skills looking for clues to see if they are still alive though. Make sure you check the white board--there might be a new (and fun) message. Make sure you check the chess game--if it's your move she must have been through the kitchen at some point. Check to see if there is a light on, and so on.

I did end up catching up with Kelley tonight though, and while we had a much overdue conversation (about climate change, quantum leap and gaming).

Yes, she brought up a frightening fact. I might know so many female gamers that they could up and start their own group, leaving the boys out entirely. How unfair would that be?

On the up side, Samantha (the new and awesome girlfriend) is quite excited to start gaming; I think we are even going to buy dice tomorrow. This is good news, there is even a friend of hers who wants to play too. If this keeps up, and I find a job, I might get to game this summer! How awesome is that?

{A side note: Every time I type tomorrow, I've been putting in an extra m (tommorrow) but only recently I've started catching myself. Strange)

The other day I took my brother out for supper for his birthday (April 7), and near the end of the evening he says to me "So, you want to do this again next Tuesday?" to which I reply "Tuesday? What's happening then?" (Tuesday is today...is my birthday...I'm out of touch...laugh at me.) I could blame school and such, but I really haven't been studying too hard yet. The real studying will happen this weekend when the "real" finals start to happen.

So far I've written my "Process Engineering and Design" final yesterday, but it was hard to study for because it's such a melting pot class with bits and pieces of everything. I think I did "ok" but I doubt I did "stellar"

Sam's mom was down for a two weeks; she left last Friday. It was interesting and kinda fun to meet her. Mostly I'm happy I was "approved" of...not that I was really concerned about it, but it is always nice to hear good things about yourself. My parents are coming up this Friday, and we are all going out for supper. I'm pretty excited to introduce them to Sam.

I just can't read interview with a vampire; Nothing is happening, Louis and Lestat are both kinda whiny, and if they don't get off their asses and do something worthwhile soon I might have to move onto a different book. Kel gave me "Timeline" and "1984" to read tonight, so interview is on it's last legs.

I so wish I had a job lined up. I hate this waiting and waiting to hear back from people!

I'm sure I have more to say but I should probably go get some sleep, I mean, If I don't say it all now it means I have to update again right?

I'll leave you with the immortal words of my beloved room-mate sometimes known as "Zombie K"

"Welcome ot the SUCK"