Random things

[apocalypsos]

-- Bush: My marriage has gotten better in White House. Oh, how lovely. Bush found the one thing that's actually improved during his tenure in the White House. *eye roll*

-- My boss called me back to work tonight. To do what? The HELL?! Not that I want to be permanently laid off, but we make CDs. Shouldn't I have been out of work, like, last year?

-- This xkcd panel is made of win, but the forum comments on the panel are made of fail. There seem to be a lot of guys on that forum who either have never heard of the "Nice Guy" scenario or genuinely think that sort of behavior is romantic.

-- I really want to get my Yuletide fic out of the way ASAP. I'm hoping to spend the rest of the day working on The Grand Prize Winner, which will give me tomorrow to type up the thing I'm supposed to type up for my mom, which gives me the next day to finish my Yuletide. If I don't decide to rewrite it all instead. Hmm.

-- I'm so tired. I mean, not just physically, but generally. I need a personal pick-me-up in the worst way. The closest I've come so far this week (and let's not count the dental work because, hi, it's still dental work) is yesterday when I surprised my brother as he was giving me the money he owed me for Christmas presents by handing him back fifty bucks and said, "Here you go, merry Christmas, oh, thank God, now I'm done with Christmas, WOOHOO." Giving away money = still not fun, even if it does make my brother happy.

Comments

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

Oh, how lovely. Bush found the one thing that's actually improved during his tenure in the White House. *eye roll*

*snerk*

And I adore that xkcd. Brilliant takedown of the Nice Guy thing. I couldn't really stomach a lot of the comments. Seem to be some people on there who think he's attacking the whole 'friends turning into more than that' situation and I'm like, "Uhhhh, guys? The first panel is "I have a crush on you". That is so very, very far from honestly being friends first and then having feelings develop."

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I don't much care for the XKCD thing, but then I've never really taken to the strip as a whole. What I see happening after the strip ends (assuming it had actually happened the way he wanted) is the guy gradually realising that having a friend is more important, more pleasant, and fairer to both of them. The only way anyone ever learns is by getting it wrong first.

But then, nobody really believes that men are capable of growing up, so I don't suppose that's how it's generally viewed.

And he started out being completely honest about his intentions at the time, but I guess that doesn't count either.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

It's supposed to be a play on the "Nice Guy" scenario. He's not really telling her intentions. That's the point. In fact, in that scenario, he NEVER tells her his intentions. He just stays friends with her, at least as far as she knows -- he never tells her he has a crush on her. He goes shopping with her, they have long involved talks like real friends would, but his reasoning is that one day she'll realize I'm here! I'm always here! And now you'll have to fuck me, right? Oh, wait, you wanted to date that good-looking guy who actually asked you out? But I'm your friend! Even though I never told you I liked you and put the onus of progressing the relationship on YOU and was just waiting for you to jump me and was pretty much using you for the possibility of sex, you don't want me? Well, FUCK YOU. All you bitches are all alike!

Ahem.

In other words, there's a difference between nice guys and "Nice Guys." Nice guys end up getting the girl for the right reasons, or don't and can still enjoy a friendly relationship with the girl. "Nice Guys" cling onto women with no intention of letting the woman end up with whomever's best for her -- it's all about THEM -- and they usually end up hating women for not seeing just what catches they are under their bad hygiene, lack of a job, and hostility towards women.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

I understand that, but I believe that "Nice Guys" can sometimes develop into nice guys, whereas guys who find that the non-nice approach works for them have no incentive to change.

Leo McGarry said it: "Act as if you have faith, and faith shall be given unto you. (He could have added, 'whether you want it or not.') Or in other words, fake it till you make it."

I realise that isn't what the strip is saying, and that there are guys who spend their whole lives being that miserable and hurting women in the process, but the point for me is that none of us are born nice. Not men, not women. We all have to learn it, and it takes some of us longer than others. And I don't see even a negative virtue in those who never bother.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

Sure, people can change, but as someone on the forum said, there's a difference between nice guys and "nice" guys, and between jerks and "jerks." The comic deals with "nice" guys and "jerks," and as such there's no evidence that the "nice" guys are any nicer than the "jerks," since the "jerks" are only called jerks by the "nice" guy because they're dating the girl he's interested in. Further, there's no reason to believe "nice" guys are nicer than actual jerks, since "nice" guys are not, in fact, nice.

If you want to talk about how guys who are actually nice are better off in the process of learning niceness than guys who are actually jerks, that's great, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with the strip or Nice Guys™.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

Even though I never told you I liked you and put the onus of progressing the relationship on YOU and was just waiting for you to jump me and was pretty much using you for the possibility of sex, you don't want me? Well, FUCK YOU. All you bitches are all alike!

Exactly. It's a completely disingenuous thing to pull with someone you supposedly care for. I can totally understand if two people are friends first, and one starts to develop feelings and doesn't say anything for a while because they're nervous about accidentally wrecking the friendship, but becoming friends with someone when you have ulterior motives? No.

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

Going to post in my own LJ about this... but for the most part, I agree with you.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm really glad that doing his best to stuff the entire world down the toilet has been good for Bush's home life.

I mean, you know, any small thing like that that we can do to make his life a little easier...

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I know, right? I know that when I lose my job, my best friend's buddy is trying to adapt to living without the leg he lost in Iraq, and the environment goes into the toilet, it'll just be good to know that at least George and Laura are happy!