I would like to talk about two things, the first one involving interacting with strangers. Do you do it? And if so, under what circumstances? Even though I believe this may be just me, I feel like more and more people proved to be inclined towards developing conversations lately, and frankly, I have no idea why. Furthermore, they seem to approach you when you least expect it, or even when you clearly show that you do not want to take part in a discussion. e.g. When you have the headphones on, when you are eating, or reading.

Today, as I was waiting in line to enter in the dentist’s cabinet, a girl my age started asking me questions in regards to my teeth, why was I there, what was exactly that I needed fixed, for how long had I been there and basically any other dentistry-related questions that she could think of. After answering to her, I turned away my head, indicating that I longer wished to encourage her in interrogating me. Did it work? Of course not. She started telling me stories about the time she had to have one of her wisdom teeth pulled out and how much it hurt, as if any of this would raise my interest.

The second point in question concerns pity. I’m especially referring to the type of pity you should have for your friends when they tell you they lost one of their belongings, their cat died, they were grounded, et cetera. If you don’t want to seem like a complete mutt, you feel obliged to say something along the lines of  ‘I’m really sorry!’ or ‘How awful!’, but in reality, you might wanna rephrase that and transform it into a short ‘Aha’, or simply ‘I don’t care’. Because seriously, who gives two cents on these types of announcements? Call me apathetic of you want, but not once in my life have I said ‘I’m sorry’ and actually meant in, when it came down to trifles like this. But of course you say it, over and over again, to avoid the awkwardness, or a possible argument.

Source.

The first train I took was packed with people. For some damn, unknown reason, there were more children that I’ve seen in a long while, almost all of them carrying backpacks. School starts in three weeks here, so I’m pretty sure they weren’t shopping for supplies. Imagine their behemothic, bulky, filled-to-the-brim-with-God-knows-what backpacks, squashing me between them and the window, making train traveling a pain. Those are usually the same kids that occupy all the good seats in the cafeteria, sit in front of you during classes (making impossible for anyone sitting behind them to see beyond their large heads), or stand in big groups in front of the Biology Club classroom, before it even opens. End of rant, back on topic.

The next train was acceptable, to a certain extent. Someone’s sneeze immediately triggered a chain reaction, resulting in a symphony of sounds floating around me, consisting in more sneezes, coughs, scratchings, and I’m pretty sure that I heard a fart at some point. It was like someone had let loose a secret code, which stated something along the lines of:

Since you people are too shy to begin, I’ll start and you can follow after.

The first stop implied waiting for two and a half hours for the next train to arrive. Since I needed to keep myself awake the whole night, I went to a coffee machine and ordered a hot chocolate. An old lady started staring as soon as I took the steaming drink from the automaton, then asked me what is that machinery, with a bewildered look on her face. I tried my best to accurately explain to her how it works, at which point she begs me to buy her one as well. I told her that she would need money for it to work.

But I haven’t got any.

Sorry, ma’am, but I’m not a public asylum. And before you start judging me, I think it’s best to let you know that she was not homeless. The rest of the trip was almost free of unpleasant happenings, with the exception of the last train I took, on the way home – its locomotive went through a breakdown in the middle of nowhere, somewhere on an abandoned field, leaving us stuck in some overly-crowded, wrecked compartments for almost an hour and a half.

Long post is now completed.

Which brings me to my next issue. For those of you who joined before 2009, then you probably remember that video browsing wasn’t so difficult to attain. Users were able to pick their searching option, be it by “Most comments”, “Most subscribed”, or anything that would satisfy their personal preferences. After 2009 and until the beginning of 2010, when clicking on the “Browse” option, members were instantly redirected to the “Most views” page, marking the beginning of the site’s desire to make more money. That was when YouTube started to go down. From that point up to now, it seems impossible to even try and describe what the “Browse” button had (and still has)  to offer.

The community didn’t feel like one anymore. Only those that were partners with the site got their videos featured at the top of the main page (ironically, even nowadays they are the same users, over and over again, that get their material promoted). This makes the other ‘smaller’ members feel unappreciated and unwelcome. Not to mention that the number of people commenting only to advertise their pornography, or to insult you only because you expressed an opinion, is constantly increasing.

Those being said, I am not sure how much longer I am going to want to be a part of YouTube, if certain aspects don’t change soon.

On a different note, I was asked, the other day, how do I see myself. After a not-so-short consideration, I realized I had no clue what to say. Of course, visualizing a few of my qualities and flaws never represented a problem, but what exactly can a eighteen-year-old answer to a question like this? I still have no idea what I want to do with my life, I haven’t even thought about college and concerning my future… let’s just say you can resume it in less than  five words. Albeit at this age adults expect from me serious, mature answers, all I can do is stare at them dumbly, trying to come up with something that would please their vehement curiosity, in hope that they would leave me alone.

But it got me thinking about genders. If a woman responds to any of those bawdy statements, she is immediately seen as a low-class hooker, whereas a man seeming interested in such approaches is viewed as the equal of Casanova. Furthermore, there is apparently nothing wrong with men whistling at women they find attractive, but the situation changes completely when a female does the same thing. And why is that?

I also met a guy a while back that never seemed very interested in doing typical male activities, such as washing the car, fixing broken installations around the house, watching football games while drinking beer and so on, albeit he was very much into cooking and music. While most of his female friends, myself included, found that quite attractive, his other-gender buddies were calling him names and at one point they even accused him of being gay. Correct me if I am mistaken, but since when certain pastimes have become gender-specific? Not to mention the fact that there seems to be nothing wrong with women letting their hair grow long, while there is certainly something homosexual or nerdy about a man doing the same thing. Our genders control the way we are viewed and because of them, we are always expected to act in a certain way.

I am not even going to go into the whole ‘relationship with the same sex’ issue, since that would require a totally different post, but I think that before our genders, we are equal human beings, that deserve an identical amount of respect for our decisions or way of thinking.