Lousy Neighbors.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

   There's a family that lives next to us. Early to Mid 30's, two little kids, two cars, pool, etc. Every weekend they invite people from their close circle of friends over. They sit on the deck eating, drinking, and listening to Green Day. They have billions of Green Day albums and play them through the entire duration of the "get together". The men gather at one table after some time, at which point cigars are often introduced. They huff, and they puff, until they've established a firm sense of masculinity betweenst them. They laugh hearty laughs, give hearty high-fives, hearty pats on the back, and hearty fake punches. In other words, they're typical men. While the men scratch their butts, the ladies congregate in the kitchen area. They lean against the counter, drinks in hand, making typical womanly small talk. How are the kids? How's the job? Your lawn looks so nice, is that turf? In other words they're typical women. The children, and the children of the guests all gather out front and play various games. They can pass hours of time easily, much like every child can wonderously do. The boys play basketball, give hearty yelps, hearty high-fives, hearty fake punches. Typical boys as you can see. The girls play on the lawn, those little skipping games, running about after each other, jumprope, drawing with chalks on the drive way. These are typical girls.
 


   

[Jason]

Who cares?

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I'm sure they do.

[Jason]

I wonder if the real Honest Abe rambled like this when he was actually alive.

Eh, Steve? 

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I don't know who Steve?  is..

I (Abe) wasn't rambling. I was breaking down the Saturday afternoon of some upper middle class folk, into a mind set that I could understand. I wish I was able to hear their true conversation. I'm sure they covered sports, celebrities, the latest outcomes to exciting Fox network shows, soap opera's, and how great life is. These are the kind of people that don't tell their children to, "Question EVERYTHING!" like my folks did. These people tell their children, "Don't question anything...follow the path and you'll have life like we do now in your adult years. You'll be completely oblivious to your true self, to your world, to the true meanings of life...remember son, it pays to be a moron".

[theCOD]

Wouldn't it be nice to live life on auto-pilot?  Sometimes I think so, but other times I'm happy to have a brain.  You should be happy.  You'll be able to appreciate life while others drift through it.

[Jonas]

Desperate Housewives. Next time their outside smokin you should work your way in. Maybe it'll calm you down...

[Paul R.]

Abe you need to get over there and help 'em out of the Matrix...

[Mitchell]

Man, sitting out in the sun listening to Green Day sounds good to me.

[Aegir]

   There's a family that lives next to us. Early to Mid 30's, two little kids, two cars, pool, etc. Every weekend they invite people from their close circle of friends over. They sit on the deck eating, drinking, and listening to Green Day. They have billions of Green Day albums and play them through the entire duration of the "get together". The men gather at one table after some time, at which point cigars are often introduced. They huff, and they puff, until they've established a firm sense of masculinity betweenst them. They laugh hearty laughs, give hearty high-fives, hearty pats on the back, and hearty fake punches. In other words, they're typical men. While the men scratch their butts, the ladies congregate in the kitchen area. They lean against the counter, drinks in hand, making typical womanly small talk. How are the kids? How's the job? Your lawn looks so nice, is that turf? In other words they're typical women. The children, and the children of the guests all gather out front and play various games. They can pass hours of time easily, much like every child can wonderously do. The boys play basketball, give hearty yelps, hearty high-fives, hearty fake punches. Typical boys as you can see. The girls play on the lawn, those little skipping games, running about after each other, jumprope, drawing with chalks on the drive way. These are typical girls.

Fascinating character study, interesting read.

[donald]

They sound a little shallow. Maybe.  Which part makes them lousy neighbors?

I enjoy sitting on the deck drinking a beer, listening to music and sh*t talking with old friends.
My wife and some others also enjoy having a beer and talking....usually more family oriented stuff while the guys talk cars, work,  or joke around.  And the kids play at being kids.

We probably sound silly to an outside person listening in.

But we don't get to enjoy this as often as every weekend.

[king of anglia]

You pompous snob.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

You pompous snob.

It just seems like we could be spending our time in better ways, you know? I understand that it's NICE as anything to have some relax time, time to chill out. But time is just flittering away, I find it hard to believe that people spend so much of that time doing certain things. Of course the tables could totally be reversed on me, in which case I'd be all for their understanding of my life.

[Old Rake]

Word up, King of Anglia.

You ever think those people might, y'know, be *good people?* That they might really love their kids and want to help their kids grow into kind, loving people? That they might really care about their friends and might be willing to step in front of a bullet for 'em? Maybe they love their wives, too, and maybe they're their wives' best friend, and couldn't possibly live without them. And maybe they have really hard lives where their work gets them down but all they have is that one afternoon where they can unwind and get together with their friends and breathe for a minute before getting back on the damn treadmill of life that's slowly wearing down their very soul. Maybe their mom and dad are in poor health, or died lately, and maybe they love them and miss them. Maybe sometimes they think back to their youth and think: boy, if only I'd done this, or done that. Maybe they like Green Day because Green Day is a good damn band, and write good damn songs, and maybe its only the tip of the iceberg of the music they like, and maybe they'd have open minds about music if only someone would hip them to some cool stuff.

Everybody in this world has value. Nobody is worthless. And you are not better or worse than any of them. The sense of moral superiority that drips from your description of them makes me puke.

[Cabana Boy]

Well said, Jon.

H&V: people in this thread are trying to look on the bright side of all this nastiness because you're you, man.
But "you" sounds like a mean-spirited, human-hating bitch at present. Bit like when you said that chick at your school was ugly and stupid and worthless for, y'know...breathing.
Snap out of it and start loving thy neighbour, f*cker.

[I. Spaceman]

Word, S and J.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I wonder what has made me such an asshole? I mean, I can fully recognize that definitely. I'm going to trace down the source and see what's up.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I AM AN ASSHOLE.
HOLY FUCKING BALLS I'M A JERK

[theCOD]

Meh.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I think I've traced back a definite turning point in myself. January through May of last year I was seeing this girl for a while. At first it was just hanging around in school and stuff; later it was spending each day with each other. At first it was great and I could see no problem at all with her. A few steps down the road and I began to see just who she really was. It seemed to be this person who was purely driven for self-gain and forwarding. She'd take advantage of people, lie to them, cheat them, verbally abuse them through the guise of sad and pathetic jokes, she'd make these girlish whimpering sounds which were supposed to be some sort of extension of her "innocence". Yet before me she'd been with numerous people, each I assume had seen her true colours and fled in terror. Each day with her I'd slowly start suppressing my true self for time with her, this I've almost realized is when I apparantly lost a lot of empathy. Some of my friends told me that after her I was completely different, less caring, more self-driven. This terrified me completely, for in my own head I feel like I'm a helpful person. Once again it's another illusion i've placed over myself, hiding something ugly and unwanted. I have a hard time expressing just what thoughts are actually in my head --- If I'm thinking something nice, it might come out as sarcastic or condemning to the person. This really hurts because as I say each thing, a thought will overlap, thinking, "This isn't right".

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

 A thoroughly contemptible, detestable person.

An inept, foolish, or contemptible person.

    A contemptible or detestable person.


adj.

    Abominable; detestable.

   1. A person regarded as thoroughly despicable.
   2. Something regarded as thoroughly unpleasant, frustrating, or despicable.

Vulgar Slang. A person regarded as highly unpleasant, especially a male.

[Reverend Joshua Sloane]

I'm not all misery though --- I like making music.

http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,1709.new.html#new

[Susan]

And you're not really that lousy bastard, either; if you were, it wouldn't bother you.

[Cabana Boy]

EDIT: EDIT