Why Shootings Occur at Schools

As of late, the topic of school shootings has once again been in the media, due to the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

As pointed out by burlingk, in his post “Don’t Politicize This?”, we are re-living yet another round of the “conversation” on school shootings, that typically doesn’t get us anywhere. While I disagree with some of the points he made, I do agree that this is a serious issue, and one which people should talk seriously about.

This is a conversation which is always going on as a part of the background conversations going on across the nation, however when a school shooting occurs, it is snapped to the fore-front of the consciousness of individuals, and groups across the nation. As it is a present and shocking event, this is entirely understandable. I don’t blame people for engaging in the conversation. However, decisions made in the midst of shock and grief are rarely good ones in the long term.

There is a difference between discussing important issues present in everyone’s mind, trying to find solutions, and abusing the grief of a tragedy to advance a preexisting agenda. Unfortunately, there is no bright line between the two, but many shades of gray.

In an attempt to advance the actual discussion, rather than scoring political points off of grief, I am going to attempt to answer a question that I found on another blog. In his post “The Sandy Hook incident”, Cool Tools For Men asked “… why do they always choose schools?”

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The Ingratitude and Entitlement of One Remaried American Woman

Based on a link from Dalrok’s recent post Baby mama drama I looked at an article on Mommyish, entitled I’m Tired Of Feeling Grateful To My Husband For Marrying A Single Mom.

In this article, a single mother describes a wonderful man whom she has found. This never before married man is economically stable and established, and loves her. He also loves the son she had by her former husband, whom she left. He wants to take care of them both.

The article also describes how her friends and family were so happy for her. It describes how they were glad that she had been so lucky to find such a man, and how they said she should be grateful. Hurrah! They have continued to tell her so over time. That part she’s not enthusiastic about. She’s grown tired of being repeatedly reminded of how grateful she should be.

This sounds a bit callous, and it’s not the most stellar sentiment in the world. Still, it’s one that I can understand and empathize with. Even a person who really is grateful for what someone has done for them, and their amazing luck, can tired of being reminded of it too frequently.

The problem is not with her being annoyed or frustrated at reminders to be grateful when they are too close together, or used inappropriately. The problem is that she’s tired of being grateful in the first place. That’s the very thesis of the article. Recall the title: “I’m Tired Of Feeling Grateful To My Husband For Marrying A Single Mom”. When talking about how he cares for her son and loves him, she even asks “Why is it that I need to feel grateful to a man for being a decent human being?”

When I was first reading through the article I just stopped at that line and stared. I had to walk away from my computer, and come back later in order to finish the article. I have a rather detailed answer to this question.

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Conflict in the Androsphere

There is a growing conflict in the androsphere, also known as the manosphere. For those of you who may not know, the androsphere is a collection of websites, most particularly blogs, where men have begun to gather in order to discuss those things that matter to men. One of the most notable blogs in the androsphere is The Spearhead, which recently had a post on this exact issue.

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Facts, Myths and Lies: “Natural Flavor is an Artificial Flavor”

A myth that I have heard making the rounds lately is that if you find “Natural Flavoring” on a product, that this product is actually a brand name of an artificial one. After looking into it I’ve found that this is most likely a case of information decay.

The long and short of it, is that “Natural Flavor” or “Natural Flavors” represents flavors that the USDA considers to be natural – which may not be all that natural after all.

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Nearing the 10lb Goal

I’m nearing my second 10 lb goal as a part of joining weight watchers. There are so many rewards for loosing this weight and exercising. I look better, I feel healthier, I am in less pain, and I have greater endurance. Even thinking seems easier, though that’s more likely attributable to the exercise and the decreased stress, as well as the altered blood flow to my brain than the decrease in weight.

A month after starting my 3 month journal with weight watchers I find that I have also dropped an inch and a half off of my waist line, and half an inch off of my hips, actually putting me at the point where my waist is narrower than my hips, and I can rely on that fact. Not only is this a great for my appearance and comfort, but it means that I have transitioned from having an “apple” body shape to having a “pear” body shape. While both body shapes are a negative indication for your health, the apple body shape is far more so.

I definitely intend to claim an extra reward sticker at weight watchers later this week.

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Acupressure

Also known as Acupoint Pressure Therapy, Acupressure is the art of manipulating pressure points with one’s thumbs and fingers, rather than with needles as is done in Acupuncture.

I recently took an Acupressure course from Doctor David Bole, a former Tibetan Buddhist monk who became a Lama at the Kagyu retreat. He holds two doctorates, one in Psychology from the University of Florida, and one in acupuncture from the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture in Oxford, England. The course was about 7.5 hours long after taking the lunch break into account.

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First 5lb Goal!

For those of you that have been paying attention, I have recently joined Weight Watchers, and while my morning weight at home was 275, I weighed in there as 280.4.

Well today I weighed in at 274.8, a loss of 5.6 lbs, and my first 5 lb goal met in the Weight Watchers program in only 2 weeks! Read on for how I did it, and how it feels!

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Cleaning – It’s Not Just for Spring

Well, as some of you may remember, it’s been nearly a year since I moved into my apartment. And yes, my apartment still isn’t entirely clean.

Between my Job, learning how to live on my own, and a host of other things that needed to get done “clean” has described the areas I let others into in my apartment for perhaps a month full of days. I realize that this will likely sound like whining. After all, many of you likely manage to get your homes clean and keep them that way within a week or a month of moving in. Right?

Unfortunately I have several things working against me in this particular endeavor and despite that fact I am grateful for many of these factors.

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What is H4x0r?

H4x0r — also called Haxor, leet speak, and 1337 sp34k, among other variations — is a slang word which is used to represent a kind of letter replacement code frequently used on the internet.

In this code, letters are replaced by numbers and other special characters in order to make the characters look more or less like the host language (usually English). This was originally done to throw off non-techies and try to hold secret conversations without actually having to learn another language. In order to further the confusion people purposefully or idiomatically mis-spell words, often inheriting idioms from net speak. Unfortunately, like with net speak, most of the time the spelling skills in question are poor anyway.

The non-standardized nature of the replacement means that inevitably, to be understandable to other users of H4x0r, the replacement code had to look enough like English that anyone could figure it out given time and a touch of practice. This seriously diluted it’s value to the point that no serious techies use it any more.

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