Green Room - Week 27 - Day 8

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

If you can manage some time that isn't on the Google homepage today, we do have a little better of a vote going on http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/468227.html - if previous weeks, and trends from this particular week are any indication, this is going to come down to the wire as all the bad people in the universe flood in with their votes at the last minute, tipping the karmaic cycle and plunging us into a Thousand Years of Darkness.

Of course, it still beats what would happen with Gary only voting. :)

Those Thousand Years of Darkness are the perfect time to write something for the Free Topic http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/468544.html

So get your inherently unethical and downright bad selves over to both places and see what can be seen.

***

So, who are you lying to today? Yourself perhaps?
Pinocchio? Don't do that, it only encourages bad behavior. How will you ever become *real* boys and girls instead of the shallow wooden half-lives you lead now if you go around acting like that????

Comments

[vaguelyclear.livejournal.com]

Google's name-thingy today is the coolest thing ever! I thought they'd never be able to top the dancing one they had a few weeks ago (it was beautiful!), but they have *bows down to their genius*

I think I'm glad I'll be asleep for most of the last day of voting, LOL.

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

I guess I'll have to check out Google since I'm missing out.

But I just woke up, so I can't be blamed...

[comedychick.livejournal.com]

I'm about to go to bed myself. I'm scared about sleeping through until probably an hour before the poll closes. Not that there's anything I'd be able to do about the poll to change it, you know... I just get nervous not knowing what's happening ;)

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

It is thundering out right now. I think it's supposed to most of the day. It is also muggy. Muggy + two trembling Kidz don't mix.

I'm ready to cry. I had tentative plans to meet up with people this week and I haven't heard from any of them :(

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

That makes me sad that people let you down :(

Big hug. If I were over there, I'd come meet you. I'd even help you with your packing!

[vaguelyclear.livejournal.com]

I hate when people don't get back to me about meeting up >:|

*HUGS*

[mstrobel.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I'd cry too, I don't blame you :( ♥

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

*Hugs* That sucks. I hate when plans - even tentative ones - go awry.

I've been trying to meet up with my old boss for months now; we keep messaging each other via FB, "oh, let's try for next week" then, "that won't work, maybe the week after..." and so on. She's very busy, but I'm willing to get up EARLY (for me) to go meet her at Starbucks before work, and we just can't seem to coordinate. Argh.

Let's just say I feel your frustration!

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

People suck. I find they always bail on me too. It's why I rarely put myself out there and ask people to hang out. It's sad really.

*hugs* I'd hang out with you if I could.

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

:-( I sorry that people are being flaky. I hope they come through!!!!

[momebie.livejournal.com]

I lie to myself every morning when I get out of bed and convince myself going to work is a good idea. ;)

That said, you were right about the bad person, thing.

[vaguelyclear.livejournal.com]

LOL, I think most people do XD

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Trust me, I'll be doing that next week when I return and my schedule will be all over the place :p

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

This. I'm lying to myself right now as I fight to get out of bed!

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, telling the truth isn't all it's cracked up to be...

[vaguelyclear.livejournal.com]

Ain't that the truth.

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

I'm lying to myself that getting out of bed is worth it and that it'll be Saturday before I know it.

But we all know that I'm evil already. But I was nice yesterday and wrote up something really quickly saying something good about the other 13 writers left since they deserve it. This poll will be crazy and I wanted to highlight all the good things about Idol and all the people left. Apparently it's all about control or something...or maybe I'm just deluding myself. Who knows? I thought I was just trying to spread the Idol love to others. But what do I know?

http://pixie117.livejournal.com/565997.html

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

It *will* be Saturday before we know it! :-)

Thanks again for your post. I thought that was really sweet. :-)

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

I always lie to myself. I find I'm happier that way.

Besides, if I told myself the truth, I'd have to kill myself! ;)

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

Nooooo you would not have to do that!

[alephz.livejournal.com]

As usual, I'm only lying to the internet today. Not in particularly big ways, but when I pretend I am anything approaching a decent person.

I am very tricksy, you see.

I am also rather productive! My entry for Topic ♥ can be found here (http://alephz.livejournal.com/501398.html) and is a quick little adventure story which may be more related to things I like than what Cynthia likes.

I hope it's not the case, though, since what I like is space adventures and magic guitars.

I also put together one a summation post here (http://alephz.livejournal.com/501716.html), which also has the added bonus of having a voting rec for someone who I did not think was getting quite enough love in the polls when I started typing it.

[nyxocity.livejournal.com]

I don't lie, as a rule. To get out attending things sometimes, to cops, and when calling in sick to work sometimes, but telling the truth is something that's very important to me. I value it immeasurably in others. I'd rather know the bad stuff and know where I stand than be lied to and placated. I need to know I can trust people if I'm going to be close to them, and vice versa. It's #1 on my list of relationship requirements of any nature.

Before I start getting on my soapbox...

Today has turned out to be surprise-downtown meeting day! Whee. It's so scorching outside that I was still sweating for 15 minutes after walking from the garage to work, so riding the metro should be FUN.

Also, I wrote something for the free topic, here: http://nyxocity.livejournal.com/95214.html

Off to try and get some work done before embarking on my journey.

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

I'm the same way as you. I honestly can't lie...okay I can do it really well, but my conscience always gets the best of me and then I come clean. I just can't do it. I'll call in sick to work by playing up on something I already have going on so it's not so much lying as it's stretching the truth a bit. Or I'm vague. But I can't even do that in situations where others feelings are at stake.

So don't ever ask me to lie for you cuz I can't :-P

And I'm glad Southern Cali is not scorching! It's a nice 70 degrees here! Very nice and ironic actually...

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

Hey, I did my home game entry! And I even recorded it for you all. If I thought trying to write in rhyme (something I never do in English) in German was frustrating, it was nothing compared to trying to upload about a minute's worth of audio. The things I do in the name of idol...

http://ecosopher.livejournal.com/94108.html

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

I'll check it out after work :)

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

I'm lying to everybody I can today. I'm indulging in my inherent badness and evil nature and have decided that I'm going to lie, lie, lie and lie some more today. If I could get paid to lie, it would be a dream job... unfortunately, I don't see a career in politics in my future.

So... bring on the Thousand Years of Darkness I say. Since we're all so inherently bad and evil, it'll be awesome. We can be free to be ourselves. Finally!!!!

So with that... I'm off to go lie some more!

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

I think you'd make a good politician actually. I think you could get used to tweeting dirty photos to women and making statistics up to fulfill your cause. Heck, I bet you'd even love cutting taxes to yourself! Why haven't you considered it?

I could be your intern ;)

[basric.livejournal.com]

I do not know whether to be honored or abashed to be on the receiving end of a Gary mocking post. I always said I don't play well with others. But I promise to always color between the lines. Always make the sky blue and the grass green.

I received an anonymous PM I want to share though I am not agreeing or disagreeing with it just sharing.


1. People are bastards. Even good people. It's just a fact. Sometimes people are bastards.
2. If someone asks for your honest opinion, they mean only if it is the same as theirs.
3. Don't question a mod, they are all holy and never make mistakes.
4. Pointing out a mistake is equivalent to a brutal attack.
5. Landcoms will eat your life.
6. People tend to forget if you put something out there it is out there even if you aren't "friends" with someone I know who several peoples "alts" are due to comments they made on my friends journals.
7. When you say something that hits too close to home people will mock it to try to make it look like your the one with the problem.
8. People lie, whether to be nice or mean they do.
9. If you tell someone that people lie/are bastards they freak out and say they feel sorry that you live in such a sad world and state of mind and you should see the best in people.
10. If you are the only one willing to say something that everyone is thinking, people who supported you in secret will join in the attack on you so they don't look bad.

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

*Checks calendar*

Yep, now's about the time for conspiracy theories and drama to come crawling out of the woodwork. In fact, I could even say that I called it in my goodbye post.

I agree with a lot of what's said in that PM. I also think that people will see what they want to see when sometimes a cigar is just a cigar...

[joeymichaels.livejournal.com]

The comment that inspired most of today's Green Room discussion, of course, was basric's comment from yesterday's Green Room:

"I've found most people are liars and cheats at heart. (I said MOST, if you argue then you are deluding yourself)."

I wanted to sleep on it before I wrote a decent response to that and was planning on doing it in yesterday's Green Room, but since the topic is here in today's as well, I'll write it here.

Let me start by saying that I agree with basric.

But...

(and like all of Pee Wee Herman's friends, I have a big "but")

As most of you know, I work with high school students and have for 15 years.

In my experience with them, I have seen liars, cheaters, bullies, sexists, racists and kids who could, with some justification, be termed sociopaths,

I've also seen these exact same kids be charitable, honest, kind, diligent, staunch defenders of their beliefs and friends, loyal, noble and in every way honorable and decent people.

So I could just as easily make an argument that most people are noble and good at heart. I'd agree with that argument, too.

Many things seem to influence how any given student behaves in a situation, but two in particular tend to stand out for me.

First, context matters. A kid, for example, whose parents are going through a divorce is more likely to make a bad choice than a kid who isn't. A kid whose just been busted for something is more likely to panic and lie about it then that same kid would be in another circumstance.

Second, expectations matter. Since I've started expecting my students to be good people, and treating them as such, they've really risen to my expectations. When I've treated them like monsters, and expected that from them, they've not let me down - they'll be monsters.

Neither context nor expectations are "magic bullets." Sometimes you can expect a perfectly normal, happy kid to be an angel and they'll still act like a jerk. However, both context and expectations factor in.

I think the real truth is that everyone has it in them - in their heart - to be a liar or a cheat, or to be a hero and a good sport, or whatever. We are not defined by a few actions that we perform in our life but by the totality of what we do, and we really won't know that until we die. At which points its too late for us, of course, to know it.

As far as the "deluding" ourselves point goes, I would argue that we all do that constantly about any number of things. Indeed, there seems to be plenty of evidence that humans that have a strong set of beliefs won't even be able to change their minds when presented with fact that conclusively refute their belief (http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/denial-science-chris-mooney). The classic quote from that article is from Stanford psychologist Leon Festinger:

"A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."

Its easy for all of us to say "oh, it's only other people who are deluded," but its entirely possible that anything you or I might happen to believe strongly is 100% wrong.

So, if we don't believe most people are liars and cheats? We're probably deluded.

If we do believe most people are liars and cheats? We're probably deluded.

We're deluded either way.

(continued in the first comment)

[joeymichaels.livejournal.com]

Bringing this all back to LJI, in so much as this is a game where people are feeling a certain amount of pressure to survive from one round to the next, it makes perfect sense that many people will do whatever it takes to survive from one round to the next. It doesn't make them a bad person. Just a person who wants to win. We all love winners, right?

That said, getting voted out doesn't make a person a bad person (or, more to the point, a bad writer). Perhaps somebody else wanted it more, or had a bigger friend's list, or had a group of benevolent people supporting them.

Either way, a person's behavior in this contest, so long as it doesn't violate the rules, is not the be all and end all of their character (though kittymichaels is exactly the same in real life as here). And if Gary says something is legal, well, its his game, so its legal - and, thus, within the boundaries of acceptable LJI etiquette.

Anyhow my point, and I do have one, is best summed up (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmALA8miQY8) by Mr. Stevie Wonder and Mr. Paul McCartney:

We all know that people are the same where ever we go
There is good and bad in everyone,
We learn to live, we learn to give
Each other what we need to survive together alive.

And, for the record, I despise the fact that my brain took me there. Now I'm going to spend the rest of the day listening to Black Flag just for the sake of my inner self's feng shui.

tl;dr - People are pretty complex things.

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

3. Don't question a mod, they are all holy and never make mistakes.

I have to say that considering this is Gary's universe and he's like God...that yes, this is true. No one has to stay if they don't like it...but geez, you see hundreds of people come every season so that must be fine for most of us.

Seriously...if people don't like it, leave. I wouldn't stick around if I thought everyone here was deluded or evil and that the mod sucked. I'd leave. Staying around to cause drama just reeks of bitterness to me.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I’ve never had a problem with people coming to me with suggestions, complaints, ideas etc. . . some of them have even been implemented over the course of seasons. They almost always required a tweak or three, in order to work, but the basis of the concept was still there.

The number one problem that I personally have encountered with that is the equivalent of me walking into a room where a carpenter is working. I see him in the process of hitting a nail and make some commentary about how that isn’t the right way to do it.

I don’t know what he’s making, and certainly haven’t had the overall experience with carpentry to present myself as an expert – but it just doesn’t look right to me.

Idol is what I’m making.

I know where I’m hitting and why I’m hitting in that spot. Maybe though someone has an idea that will add to the overall structure, or a problem that I wasn’t aware of with a particular nail… as long as people are willing to be civil about it, I’m willing to be civil right back and see what we can do. There’s absolutely no reason not to be.

[hosticle-fifer.livejournal.com]

*Lies gasping on the floor, clutching his bloody shirt*

...Did ....Did I win?

*collapses*

[nyxocity.livejournal.com]

I was gonna tell you to hang in there.. it's never over til the jury speaks.