Excessively Well Structured

Table of Contents:
i. Introduction
ii. Follow Up
iii. Vent/Rant
iv. Concerns
v. Conclusions

i. Introduction
Let me begin with a small apology for the excessive structure. I mean, I like structure, but a table of contents? For a blog entry? That's a bit over the top. But upon further reflection, it was kinda necessary. I have a lot to talk about in this entry, and people are just going to get lost if I don't partition it into smaller parts. As an apology for the extreme structure, I will be sure to ramble appropriately in each subsection. Besides, this entry's going to be practically as long as a book. I might as well give people an appropriate guide.

ii. Follow Up

It seemed best to start with a follow up to yesterday's very long blog entry about the potential evils of Scrabble. With all that talking about it, I couldn't help but start to think of how Scrabble could be harmful, even though I said I didn't want to do that. Now I didn't put a whole bunch of thought into it, but there are some ways in which Scrabble (and any mega popular game like that) is fairly wasteful. I mean, how many Scrabble games have been manufactured? How many boards and boxes and wood chips have been produced? And once you figure out what that might be, think of how many actual families there are in the US who might buy this game. I can almost guarantee that there are more Scrabble boards than there are homes who could use them. I personally know several people who have two. Much to my chagrin, I have recently found that my family's copy of Scrabble had gone missing. I can easily imagine someone saying, "Well it doesn't cost much. Just buy another one." And this is why so many more Scrabble games are produced than houses to play it. This attitude really is harmful. I mean, are the components of Scrabble precious natural resources urgent to the Earth's survival? No, but this is just one more example of the wastefulness in society. People waste and act like they can afford to waste because it costs them so little, but is that really true? What is the true cost of always losing things or throwing them away only to buy them again? Maybe it's silly of me to say that everyone should be frugal and thrifty and not waste their money, but I think maybe it's something that has to be said. I know people who buy expensive glasses because of the brand name. I know other people who are always purchasing more and more stuff even when they can barely fit it all in their homes. I myself leave my computer on all the time wasting energy because it's faster to start up when I come back to it. I don't ever see the electricity bill. It looks like it doesn't cost me anything. It's easy to ignore, but the cost is there. The same can be said for other forms of waste.

One of the most laughed at business failures in the video game world was a game based on E.T. (as in "E.T. phone home") for the NES. Aside from being written in a matter of weeks and sporting graphics that were ludicrously poor even in the 8-bit era, the people making the game were expecting a pretty high demand. They made more copies of this game than there were copies of the NES. I believe most of them ended up in a landfill in some southwestern desert. Everyone laughs at how ridiculous this particular blunder is, but that's really no different than making more Scrabble boards than there are families to play the game. But no one really laughs at that. Why should they? The Scrabble boards actually sell. And the way society is, we consider E.T. to be a foolhardy business move and Scrabble to be lucrative. Those sorts of judgements shouldn't be based upon what makes money. They should be about what wastes the most and what actually makes a difference to society.

iii. Vent/Rant

I hate my ex-boyfriend Michael. He's such a prick. Going out with him is one of the few regrets that I have in life. What a douche. He was in town last week and my current boyfriend Steven was hanging out with him. Aside from bragging about how wonderful his new girlfriend is and showing off his gold watch with a diamond at each hour (how horrifically gaudy- on both accounts), he was really petty and bitter towards Steven. Steven didn't even realize it either! It boggles my mind. Here's an example (my only example I'm afraid): Steven, Michael, and several other nerds were playing a board game where you place a few of your pieces in the beginning. Steven placed himself in a pretty favorable location. I won't go into the dynamics of the game, but suffice it to say that it wasn't great, but it was pretty good. Michael claimed that it was too good and placed himself in a horrible position adjacent to Steven with the sole purpose of preventing his expansion. This effectively made it impossible for Michael to expand until about a third of the way through the game, but it limited Steven a little as well. In essence, Michael assumed a position that would ensure that neither he nor Steven won. This is a move coming from the guy who argues, whines, and complains any time someone makes a move in any board game that hurts him. He argues and argues that it's not in their best interest to make the move and that he's weak and someone else is the real threat and you'd be better off to focus your energies elsewhere, etc. And then if someone ignores him and goes through with the move anyway, he pouts for the rest of the game and whines so bitterly that whoever it was eventually regrets making the move because then they had to deal with a spoiled little baby for the rest of the night. This is the guy who made a move purely out of spite so that Steven would be guaranteed a loss.

He probably hoped it would bother Steven as much as it would bother him, but it didn't bother Steven at all. Steven didn't even realize what this prick was thinking. Then when I told him what the asshole was trying to do, it still didn't bug him so much. He just told me, "I went to hang out with my friends, not win at some game."

And so we have further evidence that Steven is amazing. I must admit, there is no way I could be that mellow about someone actively trying to hurt me, especially in such an underhanded and deceitful way.

Oh, and for a little further evidence, Michael came up to Steven at one point and said something along the lines of "I heard from Ilya that Rosemary might be mad at me. Is there any truth to that?" Steven refused to answer (essentially the same as saying yes), and said Michael should go to the source (ie me) if he wanted to know for sure. Michael said something like he would contact me or something like that. He hasn't yet. Perhaps he's just busy from travelling, but I can almost guarantee that he never will. As retarded as Michael sometimes acts, he's not that stupid. All he has to do is reread my last email to him to know that he never will have an interest in talking to me again. Or to be more precise, he will never have an interest in contacting me. He might want to talk, but only if I were to contact him and make the interaction a little easier on his pride. As it stands now, there is no way in hell his pride will allow him to make the first move, to look like he's crawling back to the wench who dumped his ass.

Michael got in touch with Steven some months ago as well. He sent him an email. Most notably, the contents mentioned his "lucrative summer internship." I forget the exact numbers, but it was indeed lucrative. I think if he got that salary year round, he might be in the six digit range or something like that. But anyway, in that email, he said something about possibly getting in touch with me. He never did. Big surprise. All he wants is to let Steven know every so often how much he's enjoying life, how wonderful things are for him, and, most importantly, how much better off he is than Steven. Losers often feel a need to talk excessively like that.

None of this bothers Steven, but I get really angry when someone tries to hurt the people I love, even if it's unsuccessful. I hope that bastard dies. He's such a waste of flesh.

iv. Concerns

I'm very worried for my oldest friend Justine. Correction- I was very worried for Justine. I was worried until I wrote the first sentence of this section and then checked facebook. As of 10 hours ago, everything seems to have taken a few steps back towards normalcy. She changed her facebook profile back, or at least part of the way back.

To give a little background on this for those who may be confused, Justine's facebook profile underwent a rather radical change. Now I generally don't put much stock in facebook profiles. Sometimes people change things just to be silly, but these changes were too severe to seem silly any longer. Justine recently got married in the middle of last June. I was a bridesmaid. She was happier that day than I had ever seen her. So you can understand how much it bothered me when I saw her relationship status on facebook changed from married to single. Now if that was it, I wouldn't be so worried, but there were other changes too. She also changed her name from Justine Strobel-Once-Eales to Justine Eales. Additionally, she removed all pictures from her wedding. She even untagged herself from wedding pictures that other people had posted. I was in shock and very concerned. I last talked to her on her birthday on the 10th and everything seemed fine (though admittedly I only talked to her for a brief period as she was busy setting up decorations for a party). I found it hard to believe that something was going so wrong so soon.

I called Justine to see what was up, but I only got her answering machine. She still hasn't called me back, and I think I'm not going to press the issue. She can call me back if she wants and if she feels like talking about it (if there's even anything to talk about). Now, her name has been changed to Justine Strobel and the relationship status is married once more. The photos aren't back up, but I imagine they will be eventually. Phew. I'm glad I don't have to be so concerned anymore.

v. Conclusions

So I think I'm finally ready to wrap this blog entry up. I don't have a whole lot left to say (thank God, the reader must be thinking). I know short, concise blog entries may be more interesting and fun to read, but I had a lot to say. I think I shall not trouble you further, gentle reader, with any more of my ramblings. For today, I bid you adieu.