Why Halloween is depressing
POSTED BY: MAL4PREZ
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 9, 2025 06:32
VIEWED: 15515
PAGE 7 of 16
To follow up on the OP, it turns out that I didn't dress up. :( I really meant to go with Marge Simpson, but the local costume store was packed with suburbanites and I didn't see a Marge wig within my very short tolerance time for a packed strip mall costume shop two days before Halloween.
I also had hella work deadlines which didn't leave me time to do anything creative from my own closet, which is the way I prefer to go. Imagine my horror when, at 4 pm on 10/31 the perfect costume idea came to me: a bald wig, some drawn on stubble, frumpy khaki pants, button up blah shirt and similarly boring jacket, loafers, and--the dealmaker--a plastic bag full of blue sugar candy. I could have been Walter White! Damn! my students would have looooooved that.
By next year it won't be the top topic it is now. I missed my chance, bummer!
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The French Revolution would have never happened if Marie Antoinette had just given every peasant an iPhone.
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Quote:
Originally posted by MAL4PREZ:
With all due respect...
If you've got something to say Oonj, come on out and say it. Speaking in riddles and foggy generalities does no service to you or to those you are hoping to reach. It just makes you seem foggy and generally inapplicable.
She's talking to me, of course, because I'm a young fool with all the tender caring sensitivity and emotional skill of a sharp rock. I eschew politeness and niceties in favor of calling it like I see it.
It does not earn me much in the eyes of others, but I'm used to that.
Quote:
I also had hella work deadlines which didn't leave me time to do anything creative from my own closet, which is the way I prefer to go. Imagine my horror when, at 4 pm on 10/31 the perfect costume idea came to me: a bald wig, some drawn on stubble, frumpy khaki pants, button up blah shirt and similarly boring jacket, loafers, and--the dealmaker--a plastic bag full of blue sugar candy. I could have been Walter White! Damn! my students would have looooooved that.
:(
That would have been good.
I didn't dress up either. just ate candy and watched ghostbusters. good enough.
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Really Byte? Because I feel Magons deserves a poke or two in the eye, so to speak, for blaming the excesses of her own people on America. It's disingenuous at best. Denial and transference of guilt more likely.
You want to know who really is a winner at all this? Barbados. The Bajan people turned up their noses at good ol' McDs. And how about Jamaica? Same deal there. You want to honor a culture that rejected imperial capitalism, something the rest of us failed at, look to the Caribbean.
You won't find this kind of resistance in America, or Europe, and leave the Aussies out of it. The Caribbean has kicked all our asses. OK, Burger King did fine in Jamaica, but Bajans love their local chain Chaffette so much that the golden arches folded and left town. A McD chzbrgr will never beat one of Chefette's Rotis. With good reason.
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The French Revolution would have never happened if Marie Antoinette had just given every peasant an iPhone.
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Quote:
Really Byte? Because I feel Magons deserves a poke or two in the eye, so to speak, for blaming the excesses of her own people on America.
She deployed the Eff You clause. Having deployed the Eff You clause once or twice myself in my time here, I immediately recognized that the conversation was nuked.
Even a Black Bloc Gadfly such as myself must recognize unexploded ordnance and mark it accordingly.
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Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:Quote:
Really Byte? Because I feel Magons deserves a poke or two in the eye, so to speak, for blaming the excesses of her own people on America.
She deployed the Eff You clause. Having deployed the Eff You clause once or twice myself in my time here, I immediately recognized that the conversation was nuked.
Even a Black Bloc Gadfly such as myself must recognize unexploded ordnance and mark it accordingly.
I do not fear internet explosions. Someone else's ka-boom ends nothing for me. :)
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The French Revolution would have never happened if Marie Antoinette had just given every peasant an iPhone.
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What's amazing to me is that, despite Mal4 SPECIFICALLY using Oonj's name in her post, Byte nonetheless is positive it's about HER. Amazing.
And "Internet explosions" don't actually EXIST...given people can and do write anything they feel like, and frequently things they wouldn't say IRL to real people, EVERYTHING on the internet doesn't actually "exist" in reality. If one is upset by them, one shouldn't partake for one's own sanity, simple as that. Given there are no protections, it's incumbent on each person to protect themselves however they see fit. Certainly someone who keeps reminding us that they're so "evil" that everyone should hate and fear them shouldn't be bothered by an obscenity or two.
Mostly yeah, Mal4, "You want to honor a culture that rejected imperial capitalism"…When you come right down to it, the problem Magons has (and I have) with Halloween merely say that Australians are as easily manipulated by the capitalist system as WE are, not that we're any worse or better.
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Quote:
What's amazing to me is that, despite Mal4 SPECIFICALLY using Oonj's name in her post, Byte nonetheless is positive it's about HER. Amazing.
*Face palm*
This is twice now I've had to break the code in order to explain things to you.
I was talking TO Mal4Prez ABOUT Oonj, whose cryptic and undirected remarks are never nearly as cryptic and directionless as she'd like them to appear to be.
Of course Oonj was talking about me, because she's said stuff like this to me more straightforwardly before and she never says stuff like this to anyone else.
I was not thinking that Mal4Prez was talking about me when she was talking about Oonj.
As for evil, I have no qualms about profanity, and use it like an artist dabbles in fingerpaints, but there is no reason to push someone over the edge when they're not at their best. That serves nothing, and I gain nothing from doing so.
I get that you think it's fun and all to lash out at me whenever you see something that you remotely think has a chance at discrediting me and calling into question my mental state, but no one is fooled, and no one is impressed. Especially with how you repeatedly and consistently get the particulars WRONG.
And for someone who thinks that I'm ridiculous for hanging onto a grudge against someone who purportedly has no grudge with me, you sure do like to misread things and immediately claim that I'm mistaken in other people's motivations and comments. One might think you're deliberately looking for something you can mock. And how about how you bring up that "Evil" thing I was on when I was trolling you about oh maybe two years ago CONSTANTLY and in COMPLETELY UNRELATED TOPICS?
In short. I might be paranoid, but I also know that I'm CORRECT. You want to hurt me then find a new trick.
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Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:Quote:
What's amazing to me is that, despite Mal4 SPECIFICALLY using Oonj's name in her post, Byte nonetheless is positive it's about HER. Amazing.
*Face palm*
This is twice now I've had to break the code in order to explain things to you.
I was talking TO Mal4Prez ABOUT Oonj, whose cryptic and undirected remarks are never nearly as cryptic and directionless as she'd like them to appear to be.
I understood what you meant Byte, except I took the potential explosion to be coming from Magons. Oonj's post genuinely confused me. I'm bummed he/she deleted it rather than explaining it, but then maybe not because it surely was a poke at someone or another.
And Byte, I think you just did good explaining things to Niki with only a little understandable bristling. I find that this is the key to dealing with this stuff - explain without the explosion. Which is maybe why I don't fear the internet explosions these days. Other people can blow up all they want, and I don't have to go there too.
Anyway, I doubt Niki enjoys lashing out at you and very much doubt she did this on purpose. Probably just defensive which made her quick to jump to conclusions, which we've all been with each other from time to time.
Peace all.
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The French Revolution would have never happened if Marie Antoinette had just given every peasant an iPhone.
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Sigh...yes Mal4, I misunderstood, nothing more. Wasn't defensive, either, I have no interest in any of the stuff Byte was so enthusiastically accusing me of; she hates me, but I don't reciprocate, I just find her somewhat annoying from time to time. I was just sad Oonj deleted whatever her comment was, and misunderstood the following remarks. I think it's kind of understandable that I misunderstood, given Byte quoted YOU addressing OONJ and said "she's talking to me"; it's not surprising I thought Byte was addressing the group. Simple as that.
Actually, Oonj's remark wasn't a snipe at Byte at all, from what she wrote to me, I think it was aimed at the group in general. I didn't know what it was at the time I wrote my remarks, but because I remarked on it, she explained it to me privately. I think she was trying to say that because the thread was about "Why Halloween is Depressing", Magons explaining why it was to depressing to HER was just that, her opinion, and maybe not deserving of everyone coming down on her like a ton of bricks. She just deleted it rather than get embroiled in what was already getting, well, you know, which I think showed good sense.
Thanx for the "only a little understandable bristling", I got a good laugh out of that one. If you call a reaming like Byte just gave out a little understandable bristling, well, that's amusing.
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Oonj always says she meant it more generally, then later on posts something that she admits she meant it towards me. I've experienced that too many times to accept the explanation that it wasn't. It was, and she should own it.
Mal4Prez, you shouldn't side with me. Your friendship with Niki is more valuable than what I can offer. And, admittedly, it bothers me that apparently I'm so nasty that people have to modify their behaviour to avoid me getting angry. It is among one of the many reasons why I have tried to leave the board, and should still leave.
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