Current Thoughts

Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

~Winnie the Pooh

• I think that ettiquette is still important, and I don't think it's at all old-fashioned or out-of-date.
• I think I haven't blogged in a really long time.
• I think that most internet message boards get way too harsh way too frequently, and it annoys me that more isn't done to restore basic civility. Why do so many people think trumpeting their freedom of speech should take precedence over basic human kindness?
• I think an open pen on an open notebook is one of the most pleasant sights in the world.
• I think Martha Stewart--or at least, her team--has some very good ideas.
• I think peole in general are far too cruel to telemarketers. Just because they're an annoyance does not mean it's okay to be unkind to them. It's their job, and they probably need that paycheck. I seriously doubt that most telemarketers get up every morning and rub their hands together at the gleeful prospect of irritating 300 families that day. Just say "No, thank you," or "Sorry, but we're not interested." Is that so hard?
• I think that everyone--everyone--should read Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Anne of Green Gables, Mary Poppins, Little Women, Roald Dahl books, and all the rest of the novels I so often find tucked into quaint displays of "unreadable," "out-of-touch" children's classics. Classics, yes. Goood reading for children, true, but also good reading for adults. And watching the movies isn't sufficient.
• I think it a terrible shame that North Carolina is cutting five days from the school calendar. At the same time, I think going to year-round schooling is ridiculous and takes academics way too far (and as a strongly academic person, I'm not saying that because I hate school or anything). Similarly, gender-segregated schooling is utterly foolish.
• I wish more guys realized that their attempts to look cool or sophisticated or funny leave them looking like major jerks.
• I think there should be a site like www.artofmanliness.com for women, and I think it tragic that such a site would suffer constant attacks from the type of feminists and "empowered" women who do not need to be ladylike or mannerly, apparently.
• I have no problem with gossip as long as it isn't malicious.
• I think that people who use their lives to comment sarcasticdally on other people's lives should a) grow up, and b) get over themselves.
• I think that one can learn a great deal from anything, provided they want to learn from it.
• I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with Barbie. Lay off.
• I think I need to make more friends now because I think I want to be the type of person who has houseguests fairly regularly when I grow up.
• I think that doll collecting and knitting should be perfectly acceptable hobbies for my age group if reading anime and blowing up computer-animated figures on a TV screen are. I really think those are far more ridiculous.
• I think teachers are horribly underpaid.
• I think adverbs and adjectives are fun, whether or not I should actually use them.
• I think dancing is more challenging than many sports.
• I think teen chick-lit should be abolished. Also MTV and all those really stupid Disney Channel shows.
• However, I think that High School Musical and Hannah Montana actually have their place in society, and I personally am very excited for the following popular things: whatever Pixar releases next, Disney's The Princess and the Frog, the sixth Harry Potter, the Lightning Thief movie, and my trip to American Girl Natick (which doesn't really fit in this list, but I'm still excited about it).
• I think many more things than this, of course, but I think I'm done for now.