the slush pile Date Tuesday, April 16, 2024 - 08:10 AM PST Topic Entertainment I was cleaning out the backlog of submissions that have built up the last few weeks and these are the ones that for one reason or another were still sitting there. I am being nice and posting them rather than sending them back to the authors (if you can call people that can't spellcheck for themselves authors) or trashing them. Oh and there are no witty comments by me on this one, so help me out and make them yourselves... Live and Let Live DarkMistress I noticed how some parents try to teach their kids to be open-minded. My mother has tried to teach me and has succeeded for the most part. However, I noticed a bit of hypocrisy in her and I re-examined the morals she taught. I realized that she doesn’t live up to them as well as she says, or tries to display. The body, in my point of view, is like art. You do what you want to it to make it more unique. Make up, clothing, jewelry, hairstyles all reflect on the person. Many people see these things negatively. I was in Hot Topic with my mother and my brother. My brother and I bought some new shoes and clothes and after we left that store and were walking my mother starting making jokes about the guy whom helped us fit shoes and check out. He had his septum pierced; you know that thing between your nostrils. She thought it detracted from his face and she made it a point to talk loudly so others could hear. She didn’t like his tattoos either. Walking with her I was embarrassed of her superficiality. If she looked past all his tattoos and his piercing, she would have seen that he was a nice guy but she didn’t give that a chance. Now imagine this. A woman about 5 ft tall and “normal” walking in between two of her children who are taller than her and are all "gothed" up while she’s shamelessly making fun of the way other people look. She’d look pretty stupid, don’t you think? You’d think she’d quit after a while but for some reason this man’s appearance really got to her. So I told her loudly after not being able to handle it anymore, that she was acting like a jackass and it wasn’t very attractive. I didn’t want to stop there but I did and she didn’t say anything about it again. Why do people care so much about how other people look? They generalize all the time. A guy dressed in black with chains and a lot of tattoos is a big, rough guy who is going to beat you up. What gives anyone the right to judge somebody they don’t know? The people I’ve met that others are afraid of because of how they appear were actually very kind. I’ve also noticed that some of the people who are “normal” and more approachable are rude. No one can really say what’s normal because everyone’s different. I think the advice “live and let live” should be put into use rather than just spoken; deal with your own life, and stop trying to control others. I hope they feel good about themselves Celria I was planning to write a completely different article to this and I will apologize about any spelling mistakes in advance, I'm just a little pissed.... How can people you don't know just decide to hate you? I know this is common but last night a pack of preps came up and started to beat us up for no good reason. I swear the only reason I didn't kick their ass was because the police were there! Okay we went to the blue light disco just to have a bit of fun. I'm not prejudiced or ageist and all the friends there that night were younger then me, some of them were thirteen, and some of them were still in primary school. I was hanging out with them because all my older friends hate discos, they don't like the preps and now I can see why. All night a pack of preps kept harassing us. There is a guy, a real good friend of mine named Peter, and he was their target. They kept pushing him and trying to get him to fight them. After this had happened about six times since I got there (and I got there an hour late) I told everyone to dance in a tight circle so that we would have our backs to them. We did this and a guy in year ten came and charged at a thirteen-year old girls back! The reason: we were Goths and she was Peter's ex. BASTARD!!! Thinking that encounter would be brief like the last few I decided they weren't going to ruin my night and I kept dancing. My thirteen-year-old friend tapped me on the shoulder and I saw a massive fight! There were heaps of the preps and only about six of us! Well I'm small and I'm always being told that I'm not in anyway intimidating, but I swear something must have been different in my face because when I charged up to the people who were bashing peter no-one got in my way. And when I got in between their side of ten guys and my side of two the ten actually stopped! They even told me not to hit them! (As if I was going to do that. There were police!) Me and a friend got Peter out of there; Peter didn't even try to hit them back! When his ex told him not to fight, he didn't! I gotta commend him for that. No one in our side hit back at all! The stupid fucks were bigger then all of us and we weren’t defending ourselves! And the only reason the ONLY reason they targeted us was because we were Goths and there weren't many of us. I try not to hate preps. I try not to hate anyone except Brittany Spears and my brother’s friends but dear lord they make it hard. All I can say is I hope they feel good about themselves. About twenty fifteen year olds picking on five thirteen year olds and a fifteen year old who's only a big a thirteen year old. Some of the people on our side were still in primary school! I hope they feel real big, fighting girls who are younger then them I hope they got a kick out of beating up the minority. Jerks need to stop trying to control others. What's the world coming too when a guy can't die slowly, on his own? Shootmenow69 There comes a time in every teenager's life when bits of his or her existence are questioned. Self-loathing and doubt creep there way in from behind, while blatant mood swings distract me at every turn. For some this time could mean exploring what you really are, or questioning your beliefs, perhaps a great change is in order. But what is it all for. My personal bouts have revolved around human existence, mainly in my acceptance of existential philosophy as a belief structure. As a whole though, we need to look at the world around us. What bombards us every day? War. Poverty. Anniversaries of evil events. Of course, the terrible things we hear about have always been here, but now we get them in spectra vision. When we are exposed to things, they're not even done properly! You know the first time I sat in a room with a girl and saw a sex-ed tape in school it was 8th grade! Before then, it had all been boys, sitting and laughing about words like "pubic hair" and "penis". By the time we learned about STD's, protection, safe sex, I already knew kids who where having sex. 13 and 14 year old kids who still thought condom was a funny word, thrown into jokes for laughs, were having intercourse. My neighbor and three of my friends are all pregnant; not a one over 18, only one with a job, one of them under 16! Why? Because America is just fine with Ben Afflec or Brad Pitt jumping on one of the many nameless Hollywood bimbos, bumping and grinding, and never uttering the words "Do you have a condom? No glove no love." or "Sorry babe but the pill aint' enough." People's attitudes have taken a nosedive as well. My friend Jessica and I went up to our principle and asked for a couple of tables to be put in the spot where me and the rest of the social deviants hang out during lunch. Because of our politeness, our wish was granted. Not three days later, a bunch of pushy fubu clad drones get in our faces and tell us "to get the fuck up, we sittin' here!" I told him I would scoot over for him but I wasn't leaving. His was reply was something along the lines of "my niggas is gunna split you guys if you fags don't move!" now I must say this is mistake. We have about 40 people sitting/standing near this guy and eight of his friends calling us all fags. I kindly stood up (I'm a skinny little freak, but I'm 6'3" so I had about a foot on this kid) and told him that we worked our asses off to get them to put these tables in. If he wanted to sit he could ask me kindly to please scoot over a little to make space, but if he told me to "fucking" get up or that he'd "split me" I would friggin' gut him with my chain. He left. I handled it badly mind you, but look what we have to deal with. I really would have scooted over for him had he asked politely too. Growing up in the center of South Florida has given me a first hand experience on being insulted for my race. It hurts me deeply to feel such an emotion, that of disliking the fact that I'm white, but now I understand what my girlfriend has been telling me (she is black). The unfortunate part of this whole rant is that, rather than try and improve these problems as best I can, I feel my grasp on reality slipping. I no longer have the same enthusiasm for life as I once did. I know there are others like me out there, feeling the tug of angst pulling them down, deeper and deeper into depression. I guess I felt it important to get this out there, so that those people can know there not alone. Maybe I could cope a little better knowing the same thing. This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=405