Seriously, this makes me want to give up swearing forever. She's so crazy

Seriously, this makes me want to give up swearing forever. She's so crazy

This is very well written and convincing.

Yikes, now that's not really something I've ever worried about--getting put in the bin. I have been to the bin as a visitor often and I often thing--yeah, I kind of belong in here. But I make a serious effort to stay out. If you *genuinely* worry about this w/ your doctor you *have* to find a new doctor. I need to uncover my common sense. Your common sense has...a lot of common sense!

I heard similar things about Ben Stiller from somewhere. I went to a school for a year that generates a lot of Hollywood Assistant Directors of this or that. So I would meet them once in a while until we gradually forgot about each other and they would tell me things like Keanu Reeves does heroin or whatever. (Which does not seem very plausible, so they might not be good sources. But you saw with your own eyes.) Anyway, I would totally be like that, if I were directing a movie. It must be hell of stressful. I freak out about screwing up so it is unimaginable to me what it would be like to screw up and then lose millions and have everyone in America write about it and talk about it for months on end. What I heard is that he's crazy neurotic also, so I guess I give him a pass as a totes neurotic person myself. (Super neurotic people need a secret handshake. Also, we need a STREET NAME for our drugs. Yes, I'm tweeting that. Yes, I actually tweeted that in the past, when I first joined twitter but no one made up any names. Now people totally would. Cause I'm all popular now and shit.) I think temper tantrums and whining do not a terrible person make, in show biz, when you're creating your art, and whatnot. It's sort of unseemly and yes, it does stress other people out. But I think the show biz people are kind of used to it or it is part of the culture. It's more like a mood thing. Maybe I'm wrong. It's not exactly cool to stress everyone else out with your on-set freak outs. But I guess the bad thing is whether you are one of those guys who DESTROYS people and thinks you are the only person in the world. Your standard temper-tantrum thrower is like that. So odds are, he is. But there might be exceptions. I say as a person who has never freaked out in public but who, in private, relates SLIGHTLY and I mean SLIGHTLY to the wire hanger scene in Mommy Dearest.(Except I would never do that to my kid. That kind of thing is saved up for my alone time.) I actually saw the movie 'Greenberg' and when it was over husband and I were like 'but that's a good movie! And we hate that guy!' (We suddenly couldn't remember his name.) The guy in the movie was unredeemable in his self-absorption and extreme neurosis. He had not a single redeeming character except that he was human. That was what was interesting about the movie.

Damn, I always miss these nighttime kerfluffles and I'm RIGHT THERE half the time. Twitter seems so nuts I guess nothing seems remarkable. Do people really mean, literally, what they say on Twitter. I like it primarily because it is a forum for fabulism, twisted humor and exaggeration. It's strange to me how quickly these internet things that I never care about somehow acquire sharp edges for my ego. So I understand about how losing followers could be a bummer. I never feared for a live tweeted suicide. Don't apologize for your mood swings. Don't even apologize if you WERE suicidal. I think this person is missing what makes the internet interesting--all these voices, all these different lives. But it is true that we can just pick and choose what we like--that's another thing. I sometimes just don't want to read anything about cute/funny little kids even though I have cute/funny little kid because I dunno...it bores me. Some mommyblogging also makes me anxious in my parenting. So I avoid it. And this guy/gal doesn't want to read about strong feelings. So be it. I always tell my cute little kid the whole 'different strokes for different folks' thing. Some people will not want to be your friend. They won't even get you. That's just how it is. It doesn't mean you are better or worse. It just is. I don't add the part that Hitler had a lot of friends! More friends than Winston Churchill, I'll bet. (Well, someday I will...but she's only 5 and not ready to hear about Hitler yet.)

I don't think that what you are describing is actually paranoia in the classic sense. Paranoia is about the malevolence of others. What you are describing is self-doubt. It can be the other side of the coin, of course, because if we doubt ourselves we fear others more. I find that reaction strange because, to a much milder extent perhaps, everyone has had the fears you are describing. Very few people go through life without such thoughts, at certain moments. We are social beings and truly at the mercy of others evaluation of our value to some extent. So it stands to reason we would assess our value to others and try to make the right adjustments. It takes a lot of brain power to adjust to others' social expectations. (And there are some people who are missing all the cognitive equipment to do that--autistics, for example). And it is only natural to fear that we aren't going to measure up. The thing is that there is a very powerful inhibition and social norm about *expressing* our worries about our place in the social realm, our own value, etc. For one thing, it is a sign of weakness and in the pecking order, it's not good to display weakness. So basically, people get upset when anyone does express what are fundamentally virtually universal fears (barring sociopaths or people who are incredibly self regulated or have reached Nirvana or something). So you are violating a social taboo. But it's not an important taboo. I suspect the people who are the meanest to others who express self-doubt openly are people who are riddled with self-doubt. Obviously, you suffer from this self-doubt to a higher degree than a lot of people. We do need people's attention. We always have, since we were babies. Then, we desperately needed people's attention. We are very vulnerable creatures. You're just more aware of your vulnerability, you suffer more and you're more open about it. People who attack you fear their own vulnerability.

Oh HELL no. Yes, it is in my head forever and ever but seriously, when there are things like LED ZEP in this world. Then, no.

Like skynet, mamapop is the surreality & absurdity of pop culture become self-aware.

Ha ha. Such a brilliant post. And shit, someone is now marketing and playing on my fears. The problem? I'm realizing that I can't survive the apocalypse. No humanities majors will survive. Only engineers, to pass on their soulless genes. Isn't it interesting that it is other humans we must fear the most? What does that say about us and our times? I've never watched this show. Honestly, no show has ever made me wish I had a TV more than I wish it now. No TV, alas. I guess I'll just stockpile sleeping pills and call it a day though.

But if they listened to you, Pal (that's my new name for you until you yell at me) then most movies with stars and made for studios might not be horrible, unwatchable garbage. That could be very confusing for the public.

I like teach don't preach. My kid would not understand that distinction yet. I think one thing is whether how bad the child perceives the actions to be. On one view, eating animals is terrible, really, really wrong. I don't want to shut down my kid's ability to speak out against wrong. For one thing, if I was like 'well, racism is really wrong but when people are racists we just ignore it' or something then I'm not sure I'd be getting across the idea that it's really wrong. Because some wrong things we can't and shouldn't ignore. It's tough, is all I'm saying. I think, for me, the lesson I need to impart (and am failing miserably at) is that children don't get to tell adults what to do. She just doesn't seem to get that... This is such an interesting issue though...Tough questions.

Oh GOD. My kid does this to smokers! All.the.time. She won't stop. She's five. Sure, one should correct this behavior. But if a five year old thinks there is a deep moral issue, then damn, they just don't get that you can let people go on their merry immoral way. My kid somehow, someway--not from me--learned that smoking kills. She sees people smoke and she thinks they are killing themselves. It freaks her out. Also, she's bossy as hell. She was born like that, sweartagawd. This is interesting to me because I was thinking about why I don't try to get her to be a vegetarian. And I was just like--then she would have to be totally freaked out all the damn time. Not just about people eating meat but about animals and their suffering. I met a kid like this once--a vegan 9 year old--and she was the sweetest most adorable child and exactly like Beatrice to me. (I admitted to her that I kill mice in traps.) I mean, I know this 9 year old is going to grow up to be a super cool person. She takes her ethics seriously. That's actually a good thing. And she doesn't get the adult distance that we have yet. If a little kid sees that people are starving they are like: SAVE THEM. It's a great thing about little kids. Now I KNOW I made the right decision, though! Seriously, this story makes me realize I dodge some serious restaurant behavior bullet.

58%?!? Who's going to win the Preakness? Win place show Kentucky Derby? Microsoft! Buy or sell? Why are you not rich? Holy little shop of horrors Batman! People think plants are like sitting around doing nothing, being all innocent. The secret plant plot is to kill us all. Tobacco and sugar cane are their hit men. Plants are NOT the innocents they pretend to be. Just ask Marky Mark.

I hate to talk to people, personally. So I can't fault her for not talking to people. Maybe she doesn't want to. The other day I had this absurd insight: Being really nice is hard. Basically, the best I can do is fake nice much of the time.

Ha ha. Oh God this actually looked funny. Yes, it will be painful to watch. But...I laughed when she fell in the mine(hangs head in shame). Can I make a personal confession here? As I've gotten older I've gotten less and less likely to be like 'ooh men are bad bla bla bla' but simultaneously I have been unable to believe any Cinderella story of this type where the man comes around to a woman's lovable qualities, etc. In fact, I find this utter torture to watch. That man has a list of the things of the woman he wants and she does not have the things on that list and his list will never change. (Personal part of that confession is that I was formerly some kind of man-hater.) (I LERVE the last two lines and of course it was the kdiddy who did it.)

What you say is convincing--I suspect this will do nothing for the appalling absence of respect given to teachers. Or the disinterest in the well-being of students. Just the words 'institutional change' makes me bitter. It's so desperately needed it but this country is so dysfunctional I doubt it will happen. Truly good education is for the wealthy in Philadelphia as it is everywhere else in the U.S., I'm sure.

All these magazines should be called: EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU IS WRONG. And the byline: There's a .001% Chance You Can Become Acceptable As A Human Being. Read Our Magazine To Find Out How! Of course, they don't even really tell you how.

Howdja know?