Social Etiquette

At crossbowmans range, determining the sex of a person wearing brightly colored silks, lace, a wig, and with their face painted is impossible. Brightly colored silks, lace, wigs, and makeup were once signs of wealth. Wealthy men (read noblemen) were common targets for crossbowmen, and so to protect themselves they took measures that were blatantly sexist and arrogant, such as requiring women to pass through doorways (a crossbowmans favorite place to take out a target) first. If a crossbowman was out there, they fired at the first thing in brightly colored silk, lace, a wig, and makeup to come through the door. That was the, (as far as the nobleman was concerned) inferior and easily replaceable, noblewoman.

The nobility, particularly those of highest rank, had to constantly fear not only assassination, but other forms of plotting as well. To be whispering at court was a guaranteed way to cause others to believe you were plotting against someone, and if someone thought it was them, it was also a good way to get yourself assassinated in a ‘pre-emtive strike.’ So whispering at court, or anywhere else that one was among other nobles, just wasn’t done.

And if one actually was plotting against someone, to play your hand too openly with potential conspirators was another good way to get yourself killed, though in this case by execution if the potential ally turned out to already be allied to the one you’re conspiring against. So to prevent that, it became common practice to speak ‘around’ things rather than to state them directly, after all, if you said to someone that “Lord Hianmitey rides rather boldly for someone with so little equestrian skill” you faced no fear of reprisals from Lord Hianmitey for trying to assassinate him in what would to the observer appear to be a riding accident.

Why do I mention these things?

“Proper social etiquette says:

a man should ‘allow’ a woman to pass through a door before him.

one should not whisper in the company of others.

it is impolite to speak directly, instead one should hint at what you desire when speaking.

So how did such arrogant and paranoid practices become ‘proper social etiquette?’

Main Entry: ig·no·rance
: the state or fact of being ignorant : lack of knowledge, education, or awareness

Main Entry: ig·no·rant
1 a : destitute of knowledge or education ; also : lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified

There’s your answer, Ignorance. But whos ignorance? The commoners.

The commoner saw the nobility acting in certain ways, and out of simple ignorance of the reality of life at court, assumed the nobility was acting ‘properly.’ So the rules of social etiquette were written, not by the nobility, the social elite, but by the commoner, the average joe clearing the table and carrying in the wood. If one were to take the time to research the rules of “proper social etiquette” one would find that the vast overwhelming majority of those rules came about the same way.

So we have the Arrogant following the rules of the Ignorant, and demonstrating that they too are as Ignorant as those who wrote the rules to begin with.

Long Time

Im sitting here half lit Rum (the liquor of choice for pirates Arrrrhhh!!!!) and coke being my friend tonight, and im thinking. I’ve been alone for over 8 years now, I’ve lived completely alone for over 6 years, and its getting to me. Im looking at renting a house this summer with a friend, and then having 2 more friends move in in the fall, but that feels like a long way off and doesn’t do me any good right now. I keep looking at my bed, which I’ll be crawling into soon, and it just looks so big and empty. I’m getting 2 kittens soon, and being as they’ll be getting separated from their mother and the 3rd member of their litter they’ll probably want to cuddle quite a bit, so that should help a little, but it wont cover it all.
Right now, if I had someone to cuddle with, I’d probably call work now and call off just so I could stay in bed in the morning and just keep holding her.
Part of me wants to have someone in my life again, and part of me won’t even consider putting myself out like that again because of the risk of being hurt again. Hopefully having roommates will deal with this for me.

Hollow Echoes

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to not know who you are? To have everything that makes you who and what you are just crumble to dust and blow away? To be nothing more than just a shell with nothing inside?

Who I was is gone. Psyko died in 1992 but Crash eventually replaced him. Crash passed along in 1996 to be replaced by E. Nigma, who remained lost and never really found himself, and faded back into the mystery he came from in 1999. Drakonis/Drak/Rev.Drak grew in the space left behind, but he too has left us, leaving a shell behind in 2006. The person/personality that inhabitted it is gone. There is an intellect, but intellect is nothing more than a computer. It processes data and stores information.

The processed information and stored data will have a part to play in forming whoever fills the void, if its ever filled, but that is not necessarily a good thing. Betrayal by friends, ranging from twisting of words into something so far from what they were that the lie turned other friends away up to intentionally aggravating a health issue thru stalking and harassment until it reached a point where nothing could be done to prevent it from becoming ‘terminal’ are the most recent pieces of stored data.

I find myself unable to trust anyone but a select few. “If its human, do not trust it” has become my mantra. I also find myself unable to care about much. Where does this leave me? Where will it take me? Does it even matter?