rianjs.net

Suppose you order something online. You (usually) select your delivery options. Unfortunately, one of these options is not "I do not want delivery confirmation". That option is left to the merchant, or whomever is shipping the package.

Here's a memo to everyone who ships a package.

IF I DO NOT SPECIFY THAT I WANT DELIVERY CONFIRMATION, DON'T FUCKING SHIP IT SO THAT IT IS REQUIRED.

(Or at least give me the ability to opt-out at checkout.)

I am not a stay-at-home mom. I am a full-time commuter student. As such, I don't sit around all day with my thumb up my ass waiting for my fucking package. I come home and expect that it will be waiting for me. None of this label-stuck-to-the-window-sign-it-and-we'll-leave-it-tomorrow shit. FUCK THAT. I want my package to be waiting for me. No ifs, ands, or buts.

It's really not that hard. It's really quite simple: just leave it. If it gets stolen, it's my responsibility because I was an idiot and didn't request delivery confirmation.

SO FUCKING LEAVE MY PACKAGE NEXT TIME.

Update! The Fedex driver is coming back.

Fedex, UPS, delivery confirmation

For a long time, I was of the mind that if someone was a problem for society, you should just throw them in jail and be done with it. Lots of people feel this way, and it is indeed a convenient solution: lock them up and the problem goes away.

But what happens when they get out of jail? Are they any better prepared to be a successful, productive member of society? Most of the time, no. All that prison does is postpone their lives by X amount of time: most prisoners are the same people they were when they got locked up. Just older, and perhaps more bitter. There is no "rehabilitation." I use that word with a great amount of consternation - I hate the 'R' word. It conjures up visions of bleeding-heart liberals crying about the plight of hardened criminals and overcrowded prisons. This is not what I'm talking about. Hear me out.

Some brief backstory… my brother is battling alcoholism. He's been in trouble with the law: DUIs, driving without a license, etc. He's been undergoing random drug testing for quite a few months now. After a weekend drinking binge he went to his drug court for help. They sent him to rehab where he was released to a halfway house after two weeks. As far as I know, this is the quickest release from that particular rehab program on record. This is good for him because if there's anything my brother hates, it's sitting still cooling his heels. He needs to be out working and being productive: not sitting around lifting weights and going to meetings all day.

But right now, my brother is between a rock and a hard place. He was kicked out of the halfway house he was in for having a "bad attitude." I don't know what this means, nor do I really care. What I do care about is what happens to him now. He has three options, and none of them are especially desirable. In the first two cases, he has to call drug court and tell them that he was booted out of the halfway house, leading to these first two scenarios. (He's been out of the halfway house for almost a week and has not had a drink in that time.)

Scenario 1:

Drug court tells him that he has to go back to rehab and then back to the halfway house. Essentially this is what he did back at the beginning of January, which means he wasted two months of his life.

Scenario 2:

They put him in jail for 18 months and he gets out is no better prepared for a sober, productive life than he was went he went into jail. And he gets to do the halfway house thing all over again.

Scenario 3:

This is simultaneously the best option, and ironically, it is the only illegal option of the 3. My brother skips out of town and goes to live somewhere else, working and getting his life back in order. The odds of the law coming after him are slim because he's not a danger to himself or anyone else.

This raises the question of whether or legality (or lack thereof) makes something right or wrong. In my opinion, the system is getting in the way of his digging himself out of the hole he's in socially, financially, and legally. It is not helping him succeed, and by holding him back, it's not doing him, or society any good. What he needs is a strong mentor with a heavy hand for a couple of years, not a system designed to inconvenience and waste his life and taxpayer money. Let us also not forget that drinking is not illegal for someone over the age of 21, which he is.

If I were in a position to offer my brother a place to live (paying rent, of course), I would offer it to him. If one toe goes wrong, he's out on his own. But I'd rather not even have to contemplate such a thing because the system should be built such that it encourages success by means other than threat of punishment should one slip up even once in cases like this. (And who decides what a "bad attitude" is? That's an awful lot of power over someone else's life in one person's hands: they are judge, jury, and in effect, executioner.)

I wish I had a solution, but I don't. I don't know how I could fix the system so that it is anything but what it is. Perhaps a two-strike rule: kick someone out of the halfway house for one night and let them back the next day if they've 1) remained sober and 2) improved their attitude.

What a conundrum.

legal system, alcoholism, rehab, prison reform

So my almost-but-not-quite-forgotten medical dictionary is now up to 0.0.2. I added some 20,000+ words to it yesterday, sorted it, removed duplicates, and re-packaged it.

I removed the versions for Word < 2003/2004 simply because I don't feel like taking the time to split the file into 15 different parts. Office 12 is almost out; it's time to move up to a newer version of Word already.

Anyway. I'm not sure where I'm going to come up with more words, but I also thought that last time and now here I am. I'm going to submit it to the library at school to see if they want to email-blast the students with it. I know I'm not the only one who'll find it useful if they do.

Download and enjoy!

Several days ago, I wrote about English Literature, and how it's mostly a crock of shit. I'd just like to share an email I wrote to someone that sums up my feelings about most college level writing courses.

3) Most importantly… don't judge your writing abilities based on some shitty essay that you have to write for some bullshit class that no one's going to give a shit about. Literature classes are a waste of your time, and the crap you have to come up with to pass a class doesn't measure your ability to write anything: the only thing it measures is your ability to come up with intelligent-sounding horseshit. Think about it, what merit does this paper have? Answer: none. So don't sweat it. Writing classes are good at making people feel like they suck at writing, when in reality it's the subject matter that sucks. Shitty subject matter = shitty writing. Unless you're Superman and you can crush shit into a diamond, shit in = shit out? See what I mean?

Nothing you write in that class will determine whether you're a good writer.

I think most everyone who has taken a college-level writing course can relate.

English literature, writing, college writing

This image is from the Yahoo movies description of Underworld: Evolution.

The Critics: D+
Yahoo! Users: B+

And this is precisely why film critics don't matter. At all. To anyone outside those in their own industry. Because they don't speak for the people. About the only time they matter is when they all say something is universally good. I loved Underworld. Fuck the critics. User reviews are much more potent indicators of whether a movie is entertaining or not. This is the same reason I'd rather read Amazon reader reviews than reviews by critics: they don't speak for me or anyone like me.

Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, film critics, movie reviews

The amount of spam I've been getting in the last few days is ridiculous. In almost exactly 48 hours, I've gotten 400 spam emails. Unfortunately, Gmail let quite a few of them through, probably somewhere around 70-80 yesterday, but it's much better-behaved today.

Anyone else see a sudden massive influx of spam lately?

Spam, Gmail, email

This is the most expensive day for me, ever.

I'm avoiding writing an essay for about five minutes to share something that I find somewhat rare in the world of dating and relationships, particularly with "exes."

I've had two significant relationships thus far in my life. And I can unequivocally say without hesitation that I would do almost anything for either one of these two people. Anything, short of, perhaps, committing murder. Honestly, if I got a phone call in the middle of the night and one of them needed me, I'd be in my car within the hour. No matter the circumstances. I don't know that they'd do that for me, but that doesn't matter to me, for some reason.

Both of these people have significant others at this point in time. But that doesn't matter to me; I care about them that much. I don't know that that will ever change. I haven't been with one of them in four years, so these feelings have lasted at least that long, and through some significant life changes (for me).

This feeling seems a far cry from people who "break up" and then end up hating one another. I don't understand that. Unless that person has done something horrible to you or treated you like shit, I see no reason for alienation and animosity. I don't understand how you can go from truly loving someone to apathy or even hatred like that.