Mood: Contemplative

I overheard an interesting conversation on the bus today.

We're almost at my stop and a lady gets on the bus talking on a cellphone, arguing to someone on the other end and seeming to concede to the argument by saying that she'd buy them a pack of smokes when she got home. She snaps shut the phone and sort of rolls her eyes, laughs, and says something along the lines of "Teens, they'll suck you dry of every penny you've got."

At this the bus driver gives her this look and remarks: "Why are you buying cigarettes for a kid anyway?" She laughs and says "Oh no, don't worry, he just turned 18."
Driver: "Smoking's not good for you."
Woman: "Oh no, (laughs), I would never smoke."
Driver: "So why is it okay for your kid to?"

They sort of went on like that back and forth for another minute or two as we came up to my stop, with the driver berating her for buying her kid, despite his age, cigarettes; the woman just sort of nodding in agreement and awkwardly laughing this impromptu scolding off. I'm not sure how it resolved because I got off at my stop, but as I was stepping off the driver stops me and says "Would you buy a kid smokes?" to which my response was an honest though somewhat nervous leave-me-outta-this: "No."

I thought about it as I walked home and couldn't decide whether the remarks the driver had made were completely out of line or in fact justified in a strange way. Being as reserved and soft-spoken as I am in public, I would never have dared openly scold a stranger about something that wasn't my business; and I have to admit that as the argument carried on I was sitting there with my mental jaw hanging to floor thinking "Whoa, that's a little rude..." When he asked my opinion on the matter I felt distinctly uncomfortable about getting involved.

Rudeness is a big pet peeve of mine and I was appalled at the way this man just stuck his nose into a stranger's life -- yet all the while I was sitting there thinking the exact same thing as the driver... and a part of me couldn't help but admire someone for speaking up. Yes, the individual in question is 18 and is legally entitled to make his own choices -- but does that necessarily mean a parent should condone and enable those choices? And if not, is a stranger then (within reason) rightfully entitled to intercede by calling them out on this fault?

This isn't about smoking vs. non-smoking specifically, I reference it as an example in regards to a broader, more general concept. How different is it from the frustration you feel when you hear stories of family or friends knowingly giving their loved ones money they know will be used for drugs? Turning a blind eye to an account of bullying and harassment of a classmate in a school? Pretending to look the other way when you see a man and woman screaming profanities and crude names and physically smacking one another right over the head of their poor two-year-old daughter? Shouldn't someone speak up?

I'm interested to hear what other people think. Is it justified to cast judgment down on someone you don't even know about their own lives and choices when you genuinely feel that it's on behalf of the well being of another? In this particular case, a mother more or less condoning and encouraging behavior that is detrimental to her son, no matter his age? Or should we all just keep our traps shut and mind our own business?

Mood: Annoyed and downright confused.

I'm sorry, but WTF? Australia bans small breasts in an effort to safeguard children?
That's right, apparently if you're a woman with small breasts, you will induce pedophilia.

I honestly don't know whether to be outraged or just boggled. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally on board with pedophilia = BAD; however, when you take a fundamentally logical concept like that and then translate it into a ridiculous law like this, you lose all rationality points you once had. You can't ban certain adult publications simply because of breast size. It's incredibly offensive to declare that just because a woman sports an A cup she should automatically be suspected of being a minor, or that she's automatically spurning insidious new pedo lust in anyone watching. Child pornography should fall under the illegal category only if it ACTUALLY involves minors. I don't care if someone looks like they're under 18 -- if you can verify that they're an adult than it's not illegal. This whole things sounds a lot more like a government grasping at straws because they're all out of actual ideas.

Oh, and hey Austrialia, while we're at it -- what?
Female bodily fluids are apparently considered illegal and "obscene". (Possibly NSFW.)

Seriously? It seems the land down under *ba dum CHING!* has a lot of crazy sex laws. So Rule 1: no golden showers or similar urine fetishes at all; Rule 2: on the grounds that it may possibly have itty bitty traces of urine in it, so also is a no go for any depiction of the rare "female ejaculate". So let me get this straight -- watching a film where some dude lets go all over some woman's face is fine, very good, a-okay; if the woman has any incidental bodily fluids though then that's obscene. I'm sorry... what? We're now holding each genders' fluids to different standards? That is the stupidest example of blatant sexism I've ever heard. Basing a ban on the theory that there may be urine also does not count as justifiable reasoning in my opinion. (The whole idea that they're banning any sort of sexual fetish in the first place -- within non-violent limits obviously -- seems ludicrous to me to start with.)

So clearly I learned some new really dumb things about Australia today. Reading it back now it actually feels like a strange and slightly uncomfortable version of a "The More You Know" segment. To be honest I'm not one for usually baring my teeth at this sort of thing, but these are some of those really ridiculous types of laws that make me want to rip my hair out from both the standpoint of a woman and also just a general society viewpoint. I guess it was just one of those sorts of days.

Mood: The sap? I collect it here in this bucket.

Why is it that I always get all sentimental and sappy when I go to my parent's house? I walk in the door and suddenly it's as if I haven't been back there in years, when really I was just there the week before. Is there some sort of reverse empty-nester syndrome? I walk around and look at all the family photos on the walls and have a habit of touching the furniture and feeling up the fluffy linens and towels (but obviously a sentimental feeling up of the linens -- not the creepy crazy kind.) Or maybe I just don't do the laundry at my place enough...

Oh old bedroom, you are now a giant bedroom-sized walk-in closet for Dad. Beloved NASA-like computer room (though slightly-less NASA-like without my own dual-monitor computer) -- I miss you and strive one day to build a computer room in your grand image. Smelly little green software fridge... you are still smelly. *Hugs*

I love the fact that I'm moved out and have a place of my own and everything, but I guess there will always just be things that you miss from a place you grew up in for half your life. It's cozy. It always has lots of warm, fuzzy memories (in addition to the linens.) And may I also add that it's such a rip that once the kids move out, the parents finally take the opportunity to prettify and renovate everything? Seriously. Pretty bathroom now? Not fair. *Deadpan expression as her computer chair rumbles and rolls across the slanty apartment floor of it's own accord with her still sitting in it*

PS. I haven't gotten a chance to play any Guild Wars in the past couple nights because of art-related things, which is very sad. Ula is level 20 now! She must quest more! Art and Guild Wars... why must you always make me choose between you?! D: