Semantics @ MindSay

I have a friend who has a tendency to say things "wrong". These are his words, not mine. The things he says don't always come out the way he intends them to.  As a result, it is not uncommon for him to piss people off.  You would think that someone who knows they have this communication deficit would try to give a little thought to his words or at least not get upset when he's asked to clarify himself. Here is an actual conversation / tiff we got into today:

HIM:  I'm sitting at a Panara Bread restaurant working.  They have free wifi.

ME:   Cool! See, I told you it was easier to get work done if you get away from the house.

HIM:  There's two chicks at the next table. They're annoying.  Chicks are so sappy.

ME:   Well on behalf of sappy chicks everywhere, I say kiss our sappy asses! LOL!

HIM:  LOL! Seriously, it just goes to prove that all chicks are the same.

ME:   How do two women prove that all women are the same?

HIM:  Women are just in love with the idea of being in love.

ME:    Really?  Well T__ doesn't seem to be in love with the idea of being in love. (T is someone we both know)

HIM:  You know what I mean.  I mean the majority of women. 

ME:   Why do I know what you mean? You started off calling women "chicks" and then said they were all the same.  I was just going by what you said.

HIM:  Do I have to clarify everything I say? You know me!

ME:   All I know is that other people who know you tend to get pissed off by a lot of things you say even, though you don't mean to come off insulting. It is unfair for you to expect people to always get the gist of what you're saying. People shouldn't always have to guess or translate what you really mean. You are so difficult sometimes!

HIM:  Me???? You are the only one I know who argues with someone about the logistics of what they say!

ME:   Maybe. But, most people just get mad at you. I just want to make sure I understand what you mean.

HIM:  Whatever...That's it! I'm closing the window!

Maybe I was being a hard ass about it, but sometimes I get sick of letting things slide. 

So, I had TWO crazy dreams 'cause I talked about crazy dreams last night with Mike.  The first, he and I were RAs, and we had our kids on a field trip to a hotel (which looked  A LOT like the NYU at the Seaport Dormitory in the hallway).  And his younger brother (who I have still yet to meet) was one ouf or residents.  But he wasn't your brother, he was Peter Brady. ...But he wasn't Peter Brady, like 'I'm Christopher Knight', he was actually Mike's brother.   Well, I was walking down the hallway and the brother was like "Emily!! Come here!!!" so I did, 'cause i'm a good RA, and he and his roommates had accidently broken the shower so the ENTIRE hotel room had like 3 or 4 inches of water in it (none of itleaked intot he hallway, though!).  This is when I realized I was 'the grownup' of the situation and I had to 'fix things' and 'know how to make it right'.  All of that was inner monologue.  I also told myself I had to keep cool so the residents would think I was responsible.  What was my genius plan?  To have one of them pass me 4 sheets of paper towel, and we just blotted the whole thing up.

That was before 4:45 in the morning, because that's when I was awoken up by my parents getting ready for work.  And no, I don't care that 'awoken up' is piss-poor English.  Managed to fall back to sleep, which brings us to weird dream #2.

Me and my CITs had gone on a trip to see the Baltimore Orioles play for our last CIT trip, instead of just staying at camp and playing laser tag in the woods.  For the 7th inning stretch, they were going to be featured on stage w/ METALLICA.  Metallica, some crazy dancer gymnasts in crazy suits, and my CITs.  The crowd booed Metallica.  But while we were on stage, my mom's cellphone (which I have to use while I'm up here) started ringing, and it took me like, 4 rings to find a spot I felt I could answer it.  And as I pulled it open, I saw it say 'Sam Syl. Cell' which is weird because he has my house number and I saved his cell # to MY phone when I called him Sunday, but not my mom's.  So I went to pick up, but then I thought it was too late so I was going to hang up, and I hear 'hello?'  so I DID hang up, but then was like 'oh crap, he said hello!' so I reopened it, and we were still connected (woo!).  I was like "hey!! how's Montana?" and he was like 'oh yeah, I'm not there yet' even though he def should be by now.  So it turns out he's still in Mass ...even though we were DEF supposed to be in Baltimore, I was able to walk outside and meet him on the street, and we went to the grocery store.  Get inside, shop around a lil, he asks if I wanna go to the beach, and I say yes.  Then he says, "can you hold thes for a while" and pulls out a 3-pack of jars of pickles and something else.  I carry those, and we continue walking around.  We stopped at one point and he was like 'I need giftwrap' and I pointed to the rolls of wrapping paper RIGHT across from us, but he said no, giftwrap.  Right near the wrapping paper are magazines, though, and he starts thumbing through one.  Sees the cover of another and sees an article called 'what do women want'.  He was going to BUY said article to find out, but then the CDROM that came with it didn't have a case, so he said no dice.

We went back to the concert.  Tried to sneak Sam on stage to surprise our CITs that their other counselor was still around, but my phone started to ring again.  And it was Owen Wilson.  But I can't tell you how that ends, because that's when my dog came in to let me know she had to go to the bathroom and I had to take her outside.  Oh well.

I guess I had a third dream where my mom and I were at some kind of talk.  It ended up being a Holoaust talk.  Sitting around (there was so much more to it, but it has escaped me), and Jackie showed up and was like 'Hey Em, wanna come with me?' so I did, and she gives me this hug on the steps outside the thing and was like 'see you later'  because her and her mom were going on a trip to Canada.  And there were 2 dogs in the backseat.  A lil orangey-brown one behind Aunt Teresa, and a bigger, black and sorta tan dog behind Jackie.  They pulled away talking about what a bitch the brown one was, and also deciding to go to Dunkin Donuts to get stuff.

Wow.  Nothing toooooooooooo ridiculous, but all ridiculous.

Either way    G O I N G T O N E W Y O R K T O M O R R O W ! ! ! !  Could I BE more pumped!!?!!!?

In case you missed it Amnesty International, a leading nongovernmental organizatioi on human right around the world released their annual report last week and unfortunately George Bush's America was at the forefront of human rights abusers.  The administration has been basically unable to contend any of the facts in this reports and has begun an immense rhetorical campaign that argues semantics rather than substance.  The main contention is the word "gulag," which the report used to describe the detention facilities holding our "war on terror" detainees.  Bush has called the report absurd, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Gen. Myers have also all chipped in with various sound bites for the right and ignorant.  Amnesty has refused to apologize for the report and any of their word choices.  The following is a response to the administration in a letter to the editor of the New York Times from the Director of Amnesty, William Shultz.

To the Editor:

President Bush's characterization of Amnesty International's criticisms of United States human rights abuses as "absurd" is ironic (news article, June 1).

If our reports are so "absurd," why did the administration repeatedly cite our findings about Saddam Hussein before the Iraq war? Why does it welcome our criticisms of Cuba, China and North Korea? And why does it cite our research in its own annual human rights reports?

No amount of spin can erase the myriad human rights abuses committed by United States officials in the "war on terror." The United States cannot simultaneously claim that it "promotes freedom around the world" while detaining tens of thousands at Guantánamo Bay, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and in Iraq and other locations without charge or trial and allowing those civilian and military officials responsible for orchestrating a systematic policy of torture to escape accountability.

Instead of attacking us, President Bush should insist upon a truly thorough, independent investigation of those who tried to circumvent global prohibitions on torture, and he should open all detention centers to scrutiny by independent human rights groups.

Only then will the world be able to judge whether it is Amnesty International or the president whose perspective deserves to be called "absurd."

William F. Schulz
Exec. Dir., Amnesty International
New York, June 1, 2005

It is nice to see someone stand up to the administration since our "journalists" in this country do not seem to have the backbone and the democrats are also basically worthless on this issue.  I am horrified that the nation that should be a "beacon on the hill" and the oldest democracy on earth has been brought to this level by an administration that had to steal an election to get into office.