Acknowledging discrimination

I am going to allow myself to be a little pissed for a moment here. I have something I need to get off my chest as it seems to me very few people are bothered with what I am about to talk about. Please forgive me in advance if this does not apply to you, and if it does, you need not tell me so…just let me know you get the point and will stop doing it…and if you don’t get the point I will probably eat your head the next time we meet. –Or simply chop it off with my machete which I bring with me everywhere…obviously.

It seems to me, everywhere I go, people are lazy. –Inconceivably lazy. So lazy in fact that they cannot walk more than 3 feet at the time. Due to this habit of being slothful people drive everywhere. This is a fact I have accepted long ago. If people wish to slowly lose their ability to walk, let them drive…”fuck the environment as long I don’t need to exercise”. Hopefully as time goes by they will realize that exercise is actually good for you…and perhaps they will start walking again. Either way, neither the environment, nor the need for exercise is going to be the topic of this post.

The thorn in my foot (not my side) today is the laziness that affects those who would love to exercise but cannot due to physical impairment. I am talking about those fuckers (pardon my French) who think it is ok to park on a handicap spot right in front of the store entrance. The “only-going-to-be-gone-for-5-minutes”-assholes that are too lazy to park 4 spaces down where there is no handicap sign.

As someone with a close family member who needs these handicap spaces…spaces which are wider so you can open the doors completely without causing damage to the car next to you…spaces which are close to the entrance so you wont have to carry bags far, and which limit the distance you need to walk…I have seen how these selfish idiots can ruin a shopping trip.

I have been a passenger with this person who in situations like these have only had the choice of finding another store where handicap spaces have been available…sometimes that requires a long drive or a visit to several stores…now I am sure you can imagine the predicament if the store in question is one of a kind in an area.

In these situations I have personally gone out of the car just to check the parked cars for a handicap permit. I can tell you that in 98 percent of the cases, no permit has been present.

I have also caught people red handed coming out of the store while Ive been checking their car…Obviously when I ask them where their permit is they always get angry and give me the following line “I was only gone for 5 minutes”. As if that is an ok excuse. As if the person who actually has a permit and drives by will know this. As if you can tell whether or not they have a permit in their front window when you drive by the car on the opposite side. The person looking for a handicap space cannot see the front window with the permit…or lack of it…they can only assume you have one. And you don’t know if the person parked there will be gone for 5 minutes or 2 hours… Besides, it is often apparent they have been gone way longer than 5 minutes…it takes more than 5 minutes to buy a whole bag worth of items…

It makes me so angry that so many people think it is ok to do this. That they can believe their laziness is more important than the wellbeing of an already unfortunate person who cannot walk as far and long as you and who cannot carry as heavy as you can.

If you do not need a handicap space, please do not under any circumstances park there! Someone needs it and trust me, there are more people out there with a permit than you would think! Just be happy you don’t really need that space…cause suddenly one morning you may wake up and find that something is not right with your body, and before you know it you have the need for a handicap space. And at that point it is too late. You wish you could exercise, run, wear high heels or simply carry a heavy bag. Stuff most of us take for granted…stuff so many people wish they could do. Why add to their misery? How can you be so selfish? Why is your laziness more important than other people’s wellbeing? If you have legs to walk on then walk. And if you don’t, get a permit before you park illegally.

I think I will start carrying a permanent marker in my bag. And every time I find an illegally parked car, I will write in big letters on the back window: “I am more important than handicapped people”. That way the driver will have to drive all the way home in embarrassment before he can wash it off with spirits.

Next car could be yours. Think about it.

I slept through a big fire last weekend...

Half my block is gone, and no one even bothered to wake me. It has been 3 days and the firemen are still there…making sure the fire wont start again.

Its strange how some situations can open your eyes. You always imagine these things wont happen to you…and you still don’t believe it when its happening. I guess for me, it didn’t really happen. I talked to a police officer at the scene who told me they had considered my building safe…I guess their idea of “safe” is a bit different than mine, in view of the fact that I live 2 houses down from a burnt down building.

Ive always wondered what I would bring with me in case of a fire...If I had 2 minutes to gather something before I had to evacuate, what would I bring? I dont own that many things, but the ones I do own have a lot of meaning to me...obviously Im not personal with my plates or my towels, but I do have a lot of pictures for instance...and memories in shapes of decorations, candles, books. Most of it irreplaceable...not because they're pricey or even particularly old...but because they are attached to a story. And Ive been wondering how I could possibly separate them in value.

Which story is worth more than the others?

How could I possibly choose? You can argue and say that the stories will still be there even if the mementos are gone…but sometimes you need to hold an object in your hands in order to remember details about something…or to even be reminded of stories. I have stuff Ive bought on trips that sparks a memory I wouldn’t be able to recall had it not been for the very thing I bought. I can look at a picture Ive taken and remember what happened right before the picture was taken…or right after. How could I possibly make the same neural connections without the picture? The same goes with objects…the wooden carving I bought in Tanzania…I remember the smell of the store…the smiles on the salespeople…the very shelf it stood on and how I almost tore the whole thing down by accident when I picked out the carving I wanted. I can look at the item and remember this…but if the item goes…how will my mind be able to keep the memory? And how could I value this memory over or under others? Obviously it wasn’t a life changing episode of my existence, but it helps me recall the feel of a country I fell in love with.

I guess what Im trying to say is; Its not the objects but the stories I am afraid of losing…and you cant get insurance on stories.

Reviving blogs

Ive been sensing the subsequent death of my picture blog lately...Not because I dont take any pictures, but because I usually store them on my laptop and not the computer I use at uni...and as we all know how I love to procrastinate, I usually update my blogs at uni. So today I decided to, figuratively speaking, give a little mouth-to-mouth and blow a little life into the poor dying thing. I have therefore updated my "Life in pictures" blog (link on right hand side) with pictures from Tanzania and some from the past weekend. I have no idea if this is interesting to anyone but myself, but I did it anyway. Mostly because I felt sorry for the blog...and no blogs should die alone. So there you have it.

Other than that, I really dont have anything to report. Nor do I have any major topics and personal views I feel like sharing...so I will pat myself on the back for updating one of the blogs and come back to this one later.

To Be Continued