![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteNormally, I would not be awake at this hour on a Saturday, save for what has become par for the course: another weird dream. I dreamed I was in Washington D.C. with a bunch of friends/classmates to listen to Hillary and Bill Clinton talk about something in the White House. Now, this gives me the impression that a) this took place back when Bill was President or b) it takes place in a possible future where Hillary becomes president.
Either way, it was enlightening and funny (though I can't remember WHY), and I remember leaving and heading to a Kinko's (a Kinko's that had a room of just chairs on the perimeter, oddly enough) to get some work done. All was well right until I was about to finish, until I had some sort of run in with a young-looking but rather slobbish and chubby guy who made some rude comment about one of my friends (Stephanie, I think, though again, I don't know why that is, or why that specific detail stands out in my mind) and it just SET ME OFF.
Somehow I found out about this guy-- he was a vet from some recent horrid war and had survived "World's End" (incidentally, it's up in Canada-- a map was provided to me in-dream, which is how I know... apparently it was the site of some REALLY horrific events) and was probably a little mental, and shouldn't I give him some slack? No, no, no, I was so steamed at this guy and all the people that just stood by and agreed with him just for the sake of convenience... I took the whole place hostage somehow (I didn't have any sort of a weapon, unless you count whatever may have been lying around the store... I seem to remember some sort of heavy metal pole and some sort of wire, though... :P) and lectured them, threatened to shred their CDs, etc. The guy was just so laid-back about his attitude, and everyone else seemed so uncomfortable that I was actually standing up for a friend and arguing my point.
The question is, if this dream does have a meaning, is it any of the following?:
* Don't go to Washington D.C. That places makes you crazy/has lots of crazies in it.
* Don't argue with veterans.
* Don't stand up for your friends (when they're not there to see it?)-- they can stand up for themselves.
Or something else?
In the end, most of the people left/were able to go and it was no big deal, including the slob that had started it all. I had a bunch of CDs and papers with "rude and hurtful content" on it that I wanted to shred, but I made the mistake of going back into the store to check if I'd left anything there (after I'd dropped the CDs and papers I intended to shred outside in another segment of the store, or outside-outside, which strangely had a shredder, or an outlet with which to plug in the store shredder), and when I came back, two stragglers had grabbed all their CDs and papers back, and I just decided it wasn't worth the effort anymore.
I recognize at least a few bits and pieces of the origins of this dream, so I know it's not completely out of left-field like some of the dreams I've had. I do wonder if LiveJournal itself had its part with this dream, because in-dream, I was so adamant about my friend's feeling being hurt by others (even if the others weren't actually addressing my friend, or if they didn't know her in real life) that I got so mad and downright unreasonable
I know when I get mad that I can refuse to listen to sense and it's all about "my way or the highway!" but I'd like to think that before I get to that point, I'm at least willing to listen to the other side/hear them out so I don't jump into a pot of boiling water (figuratively). I'm the kind of person that doesn't like being proved wrong, but if there's a possibility of it happening, I'd much rather it be done with tact than without- basically, none of this "NYAH NYAH I was right and you were wrong!" B.S., because I got sick of that in elementary school.
If you're wondering about the whole LiveJournal relation to the dream, LJ's parent company, SixApart, is doing a wonderfully CRAPPY job at keeping up its image and maintaining a site that used to be a great place to network, communicate with others about your shared interests, or just journal.
And now I'm really starting to regret paying for a Permanent Account (I don't think it will have achieved its value for another couple of years), because so many debacles in such a short period of time really speaks volumes about LJ, its staff, and its volunteers. Speaking of the volunteers, I don't know if anyone on my FL is one of them, and I'm sorry for this, but I really think SA should trash them. The volunteer-based Abuse team has such fragmentary points of view and double-standards that it makes LJ/6A look stupid whenever they respond to any sort of abuse request. They need to hire appropriate people to act as an Abuse team FROM WITHIN-- paid people that work with the rest of LJ in their offices in San Francisco. They need proper training, too, because so many of the people that do work for LJ-- whether real staffers or volunteer Abuse team members-- don't seem to have the tact or intelligence to be responding to issues the way they have been.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coffeechica, I'm looking at you! (Even though I doubt s/he will read this)
a_white_rain knows what's recently gotten me angered-- the existence of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
proanorexia. Just one look at that community makes me sick to my stomach (but thankfully not in the ED way), and even though Abuse reports have been filed about it, it's been ignored, sidestepped, swept under the rug... you get the picture. It's really pathetic, especially LJ's "official" response to it.
How do they get so damn worked up over FICTIONAL children and the possible offense that a sexual situation with them may cause as opposed to a community of REAL people endangering their lives by starving themselves to "get skinny"? I mean, way to get your priorities misaligned, LJ! (For the record, I don't think smut fic or art involving characters -for example, any of the Harry Potter crew- can or should be labeled as offensive and/or without artistic merit SIMPLY because it features characters that CAN, or WERE, at some point in the original canon, minors. THEY'RE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!) (<-- This relates to the latest "Strikethrough 2.0" that resulted in two well-known HP slasher fic/artists getting their journals permanently removed because they featured fic and/or art with the HP characters in it in sexual situations. I don't know all the details, like whether the characters were aged-up in the fic/art --I do know that LJ doesn't abide by that idea anymore, which is downright RIDICULOUS-- or whether the posts were posted in inappropriate communities, or if they were friends-locked, if they were given a warning, etc.)
But that's a rant for another post, and possibly another day when my jaw isn't hurting so damn early.
...I shouldn't use this icon twice in a row, but it's SO APPROPRIATE, and that makes me sad.
Either way, it was enlightening and funny (though I can't remember WHY), and I remember leaving and heading to a Kinko's (a Kinko's that had a room of just chairs on the perimeter, oddly enough) to get some work done. All was well right until I was about to finish, until I had some sort of run in with a young-looking but rather slobbish and chubby guy who made some rude comment about one of my friends (Stephanie, I think, though again, I don't know why that is, or why that specific detail stands out in my mind) and it just SET ME OFF.
Somehow I found out about this guy-- he was a vet from some recent horrid war and had survived "World's End" (incidentally, it's up in Canada-- a map was provided to me in-dream, which is how I know... apparently it was the site of some REALLY horrific events) and was probably a little mental, and shouldn't I give him some slack? No, no, no, I was so steamed at this guy and all the people that just stood by and agreed with him just for the sake of convenience... I took the whole place hostage somehow (I didn't have any sort of a weapon, unless you count whatever may have been lying around the store... I seem to remember some sort of heavy metal pole and some sort of wire, though... :P) and lectured them, threatened to shred their CDs, etc. The guy was just so laid-back about his attitude, and everyone else seemed so uncomfortable that I was actually standing up for a friend and arguing my point.
The question is, if this dream does have a meaning, is it any of the following?:
* Don't go to Washington D.C. That places makes you crazy/has lots of crazies in it.
* Don't argue with veterans.
* Don't stand up for your friends (when they're not there to see it?)-- they can stand up for themselves.
Or something else?
In the end, most of the people left/were able to go and it was no big deal, including the slob that had started it all. I had a bunch of CDs and papers with "rude and hurtful content" on it that I wanted to shred, but I made the mistake of going back into the store to check if I'd left anything there (after I'd dropped the CDs and papers I intended to shred outside in another segment of the store, or outside-outside, which strangely had a shredder, or an outlet with which to plug in the store shredder), and when I came back, two stragglers had grabbed all their CDs and papers back, and I just decided it wasn't worth the effort anymore.
I recognize at least a few bits and pieces of the origins of this dream, so I know it's not completely out of left-field like some of the dreams I've had. I do wonder if LiveJournal itself had its part with this dream, because in-dream, I was so adamant about my friend's feeling being hurt by others (even if the others weren't actually addressing my friend, or if they didn't know her in real life) that I got so mad and downright unreasonable
I know when I get mad that I can refuse to listen to sense and it's all about "my way or the highway!" but I'd like to think that before I get to that point, I'm at least willing to listen to the other side/hear them out so I don't jump into a pot of boiling water (figuratively). I'm the kind of person that doesn't like being proved wrong, but if there's a possibility of it happening, I'd much rather it be done with tact than without- basically, none of this "NYAH NYAH I was right and you were wrong!" B.S., because I got sick of that in elementary school.
If you're wondering about the whole LiveJournal relation to the dream, LJ's parent company, SixApart, is doing a wonderfully CRAPPY job at keeping up its image and maintaining a site that used to be a great place to network, communicate with others about your shared interests, or just journal.
And now I'm really starting to regret paying for a Permanent Account (I don't think it will have achieved its value for another couple of years), because so many debacles in such a short period of time really speaks volumes about LJ, its staff, and its volunteers. Speaking of the volunteers, I don't know if anyone on my FL is one of them, and I'm sorry for this, but I really think SA should trash them. The volunteer-based Abuse team has such fragmentary points of view and double-standards that it makes LJ/6A look stupid whenever they respond to any sort of abuse request. They need to hire appropriate people to act as an Abuse team FROM WITHIN-- paid people that work with the rest of LJ in their offices in San Francisco. They need proper training, too, because so many of the people that do work for LJ-- whether real staffers or volunteer Abuse team members-- don't seem to have the tact or intelligence to be responding to issues the way they have been.
coffeechica, I'm looking at you! (Even though I doubt s/he will read this)a_white_rain knows what's recently gotten me angered-- the existence of proanorexia. Just one look at that community makes me sick to my stomach (but thankfully not in the ED way), and even though Abuse reports have been filed about it, it's been ignored, sidestepped, swept under the rug... you get the picture. It's really pathetic, especially LJ's "official" response to it.How do they get so damn worked up over FICTIONAL children and the possible offense that a sexual situation with them may cause as opposed to a community of REAL people endangering their lives by starving themselves to "get skinny"? I mean, way to get your priorities misaligned, LJ! (For the record, I don't think smut fic or art involving characters -for example, any of the Harry Potter crew- can or should be labeled as offensive and/or without artistic merit SIMPLY because it features characters that CAN, or WERE, at some point in the original canon, minors. THEY'RE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!) (<-- This relates to the latest "Strikethrough 2.0" that resulted in two well-known HP slasher fic/artists getting their journals permanently removed because they featured fic and/or art with the HP characters in it in sexual situations. I don't know all the details, like whether the characters were aged-up in the fic/art --I do know that LJ doesn't abide by that idea anymore, which is downright RIDICULOUS-- or whether the posts were posted in inappropriate communities, or if they were friends-locked, if they were given a warning, etc.)
But that's a rant for another post, and possibly another day when my jaw isn't hurting so damn early.
...I shouldn't use this icon twice in a row, but it's SO APPROPRIATE, and that makes me sad.
