What I'm doing with my free time

I've got some free time on my hands. See, I'm currently unemployed. Sometimes it's great. Sleeping in! No responsibilities! Not having to jam myself on the train at rush hour! Sometimes it's not so great. No income! Boredom! It's like a vacation, but without the fun and friends and funds for which to pay for it.

But I'm still committed to being a good human. So, here, in convenient bullet format, is what I'm doing with myself:

• I take my magazines to the dialysis center nearby. I've been told that dialysis is quite time consuming, so who wouldn't want to kick back with a nice Us Weekly or Mother Jones while a machine filters their blood for them? I like the idea of getting multiple uses out of something before recycling it. (Yes, both of those subscriptions were gifts. I really, really love one of them. Guess which one.)


• I'm taking fewer showers. And therefore using less water. TMI?


• I'm keeping my heat as low as possible, while (barely) avoiding frostbite. I'm trying to make a game out of it, like every degree I can stand to lower it is a point for me. I was sick last week and lost a bunch of points though. :(
  


• I go to the library instead of the bookstore. Again with the reusing thing.
  


• I talk to my family more. I chatted with my gram for over an hour the other day and I could tell that it totally made her day. St. Joseph is being very sluggish with selling their house, btw.
  


• I'm reading a lot more blogs. Right now I'm totally crushing on Daily Mitzvah, Menstrual Poetry, MMM Brains!, Muslim Hedonist, No Impact Man, Shakesville, Stickpaste, The Curvature, Well-Heeled, and Where It Stands, just to name a few.


• I'm able to devote more time to the RAINN Online Hotline. Have you been sexually assaulted and don't know how to deal? Not sure about what happened to you? Still feeling anxious even though it was a while ago and you "should" be over it by now? Chat with a trained volunteer (like me!) securely and anonymously.
  

Do you have any ideas? I've got plenty of time to implement them! Leave 'em in the comments or email me at beagoodhuman11 at gmail dot com.

On privilege

I thought I would hop on the so-called privilege meme floating around these days. When you think about how much farther some people have to go in order to achieve, it's kind of shocking. To be sure, this list works best for people in first world nations. Obviously.

Reminds me of this quote I read somewhere from Barry Switzer: "Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple." (Thanks Will!) Likewise, there are some people born in the dugout who never even get up to bat. I like to think I'm somewhere in the middle.

Bold all that are true for you.

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
6. Were the same or higher socioeconomic class than your high school teachers
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
9. Were read children’s books by a parent (Hands down, my favorite childhood memories involve bedtime stories. She always gave in to my pleas of "just one more!")
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively (I'm not sure the media portrays anyone positively anymore...)
    
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school (on scholarship and lots of debt incurred by my mother)
17. Went to summer camp (basketball)
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them (I busted my ass serving pizza and bought my own car thankyouverymuch!)
    
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
23. You and your family lived in a single family house (after age 11)
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child (for the most part)
    
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18.
27. Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course (Maybe that's why I didn't even get a 1300. Or maybe it's because I was lazy and didn't study.)
    
28. Had your own TV in your room in High School
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up (The first time I went to a museum was last September when my bf took me to The Met. It was boring.)
    
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
    

(The list is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. The exercise developers ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.)

Hmm! I expected to have more than 9 bolded here. I guess I'm snobbier than my upbringing would imply. How many do you have? Leave it in teh commentz!

Update: Will Barratt, one of the creators of this exercise, has a blog on the subject of class where he dissects it all in a typically academic fashion. Sound boring? It's actually really fascinating and worthy of checking out, especially if the list above made you think twice.

I do what I want

So, I've gotten some pretty interesting emails recently about the Blogs I Hate post. First, thank you for being angry enough to send them! I did notice a few common themes:

• I'm a stupid cunt/whore/bitch/liberal.
• I'm on the terrorists' side.
• I should repent for my sins.
  
• 9/11 was my fault.
• I should go cook dinner and/or perform light house work and/or fellatio.
  
• WTF does me bitching about conservatives have to do with being a good human?

All valid points. However, please let me address the last one. It's true, very little is accomplished by whining. And perhaps, my time would be better spent at the SPCA, cleaning shit out of cages. But y'know what? I don't give a shit.

If I see something that needs to be called out, I'm going to fucking call it out. Misogynist advertising included. Dumbass government decisions included. Wingnut blogs and websites definitely included.

I very much believe that part of being a good human is pointing out when someone isn't. So many people believe that Reagan was a great president. Only he was a fucking terrible president! He just told everyone, and the media told everyone that he was great, that the "trickle down theory" of bullshit economics works and everyone was stupid enough to believe it. And now after 20 years, after the veneer of time has piled on, obscuring the truth even more, today's Republican presidential candidates are invoking Reagan's name as laudable and worthy of emulating. Being able to fool people into thinking you're good doesn't make you good.

So I guess I'm hoping that if I can draw attention to issues and people that I believe are completely wrong, well maybe everyone else will stop for a second, for one goddamn second and think critically about it. Maybe they'll come to the same conclusion they already had, but at least they wouldn't have just lined up, like animals for the slaughter without second-guessing themselves first.

I believe good humanity thinks, questions, and is often unsure. Good humanity is angry when faced with proof of the opposite. Good humanity isn't going to shut the fuck up either.

Silver linings, etc

(photo from icanhascheezburger.com)

This has been a hard week. Turns out, I was wrong in my assumption that I would just bounce back after getting canned. My egomaniacal idea that my vast skillset would translate easily into the non-profit sector proved false when I realized that I don't really have a skillset. That superhot guy is avoiding me again and I think it's because my ex badmouthed me. The bf has been working 6 days/week to make up for my lost income and I miss him. Brad. Heath. Republicans.

It's probs just my hysterical uterus and I just need to buck up.

At least I still have all my lady parts. And I have a truly awesome, selfless bf, who hasn't complained once about all the extra hours he's working. I'm still able to line up job interviews and I have another one tomorrow. I get to spend some real quality time with my beta fish, Gene McGranagan. Turns out, my neighborhood is a lot of fun to walk around while everyone else is at work. Netflix. My RSS reader. Facebook.

Update: I was wrong; I am FUCKING AWESOME. I let the situation get me down and I let the dirty, underhanded tactics of my petty former employer make me think that I'm less than I am. Anyone know a good lawyer?

And we're back!

So I got my final expenses taken care of at the old job. Now I really think I can wash my hands of the whole situation and, as a bonus, open Be a Good Human back up to the dozens of you that missed my narcissistic missives. I hope never to have to do that again. Lesson learned.

Oops!

I have a link for this blog in the signature of my personal email. And I am an idiot. Today I sent an email to my former boss and copied the directors of HR and payroll regarding an expense reimbursement issue and I forgot to delete the link in my signature. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

So I've decided to restrict the permissions to people I know and love for a while. At least until I know I'm getting paid for those expenses. Then I won't really care if they see that I hated their guts.

Talking to myself

I'm 22, just a babe really. Or so I like to think. Sometimes I get caught in a moment where I remember something from years ago and then think, I can't believe I even have memories from years ago! I recently got my high school's newsletter in the mail, complete with donation request. First, I'm just incredulous that I graduated 4 and 1/2 years ago and second, they must be crazy to ask me for money fresh out of college. I don't even know how they found my address, but anyway.

I started thinking of everyone I used to know. It was really weird. Then remembered how NOT a good human I was. Ugh! High school girls are such bitches and I was no exception. And so if I could talk to my 17 year old self, this is what I would say:

• Dump him. You're way better and he's dragging you down. I promise you'll find someone awesome in a couple years.


• Also, the way you dumped that kid sophomore year was entirely too harsh, bordering on cruel. On his birthday? In front of all his friends? BITCH! (But ohhhhh so satisfyingly funny. He was pretty creepy.)

• Remember how you sometimes felt the need to bust your ass to get an A when a B would've been just fine? SUCH A WASTE OF TIME. You'll make the same mistake in college. You'll know by then that your GPA is pointless, but that's not going to stop you.
  

• Lay off the fucking partying! Christ! What are you even trying to prove?


• Just kidding. You're not hurting anyone. In fact, you still look back on your 17th birthday with furtive exhilaration.


• I totally can't believe you got away with writing that in the yearbook! Also, he gets fired anyway.


• Take a good look around. You'll be back exactly twice after you go off to school and if you ever think about giving up and coming home, this is where you'll probably end up. We both know you can do better.


• Your sister turns out way hotter than you. Sorry, but if you think you're jealous of all the attention she gets now, you're definitely in for it later.

• Swimming in the lake turns out to be way more fun wearing all your clothes than anybody thought. You'll regret that you didn't do it enough.

• Stop ignoring all your friends when you get a boyfriend. It's a really shitty thing to do and they WILL get mad about it.
  


• Some people will always be douchebags. You don't have be.