Green Room - Week 18 - Day 6

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

As someone who actually remembers politics in the 90s, I don’t know if I should laugh or cry over the extent that the GOP is continuing to rage against “Obamacare”.

It was literally their idea. Not figuratively. Or even the new definition of literally. Not “well, this part was theirs, but then it got twisted”. Lock stock and barrel “ObamaCare” was the child of the Heritage Foundation think tank and embraced by conservatives and the pillars of the Republican party as the alternative to “HillaryCare” that was going to save health care as we know it and introduce a new level of personal responsibility with mandatory insurance coverage so that people weren’t paying inflated costs due to the uninsured.

Now – it’s socialism that is going to destroy health care, and the country.

And of the course, the Left who hated the GOP plan and thought that it would destroy the country now look at it like it’s the best thing to ever be created!

Which makes me wonder what I said 20 years ago, and how it matches up with what I’d say now! Is there anything that I would have embraced that I now think is the debbil? Anything that I hated that now I can’t imagine my life without?

How about you? Even if it’s not a couple decades, what things did you embrace whole heartily that now you wouldn’t walk across the street to put it out if it caught fire? What changed your mind?

***
One thing that no one will change their mind on is that we have three great entries and a poll closing tonight! http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/697433.html
Segues! Get your segues here!!

Comments

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

First? YAY!

One thing that I didn't think I would like back in the day was all this new-fangled tech. At the time "smart phones" first came out, I got a Blackberry because I wanted a "real" little keyboard, as opposed to the touch keys like most phones have nowadays (I currently have an iPhone 4). But now I prefer the "fake" keys since they do make typing (and alas, typos) faster.

It's a small thing, but there you go.

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

I remember telling a friend of mine that I thought that the foster child programme (you know, when you sponsor a child overseas so s/he can go to school and have access to clean water, etc) wasn't a good idea because we needed to get serious about overpopulation.

Ha. Pretty harsh, right?! I was about sixteen or seventeen, so around 20 years ago.

Since then, I still have reservations about sponsoring children overseas, but that's more due to issues to do with the charities and how they're run. I also think that most people can best affect change, one person at a time. And now I have children of my own, I can't imagine what it must be like to not be able to provide even the basic needs for one's child, or to watch that child die from thirst or hunger or malaria. Plus, having four offspring means I don't get to lecture anyone on the evils of overpopulation anymore.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Twenty years ago I was five. ;) I don't think I had many grand ideas about how things should be done, yet.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that I had some strong opinions on "how things should be done" when I was 5!! :)

[x-disturbed-x.livejournal.com]

The only thing I remember about twenty years ago was Rugrats. ;) I don't recall many grand ideas either.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Five comments.

Maybe we should go back to griping about intersections.

Or we could debate the merits of the semi-colon.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

What were your first impressions of Intersections? How have they changed over the years?

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I need a stylus or something so I can "type" on my smartphone. I hate swyping. My fingertip is too damn big :p

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I was petrified of them my first season because I really didn't know anybody other than those who were already on my FL, already knew others, and therefore were always spoken for. Somebody who I think was already a veteran took pity on me. We eventually became not-soulmates-but-friendly.

By the time the second intersection came around I'd gotten to know quite a few folks, and I just threw myself into the whole asking around thing.

I like bouncing ideas off others. I like merging two entries in some way. My most successful intersection was with whirled a couple of seasons ago where we took a RL event and fictionalized it via two viewpoints.

The one thing I don't like? My work schedule barging in on all this. Last season I was the odd woman out in one intersection :(


ETA: I'm still packing for our getaway, so I'll be checking in sporadically ;)

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Semi colons are for weak!!

(take it from there GR!)

[lrig-rorrim.livejournal.com]

Twenty years ago I was sixteen (and yeah, this is the part where I start to feel a little old...), and I firmly believed that you could change people's minds and save the world just by showing them "the facts". It was easy. We just needed to get out there, make persuasive arguments and present things as they really were, and change would happen pretty much right away.

Ahahahahahahahahahaha. Yeah, no. While my political beliefs haven't shifted much since then, I have a far better understanding of human nature now. It honestly never occurred to me that people thought that their opinions were grounded in facts, and in fact most of them had been exposed to the same set of facts I had, and had just come to different conclusions. I'm not sure when that sunk in, and I realized that changing the world for the better wasn't just a matter of broadcasting a message and waiting for the change to happen. I take a very different approach now.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Hah! That statement has no merit.

I'll admit, I almost never use them when posting online, because they are hard to see onscreen. I tend to use dashes instead— they're easier to identify.

See what I did there?

[kajel.livejournal.com]

My first intersection was with sweeny_todd at the beginning of Exhibit B. We had only recently become LJ friends and I didn't know her very well. Also, she is in Japan, whereas I am in the EST U.S. timezone. I basically went, cool, we are writing together. Now what? I don't believe she had actually done and intersection either, but at least she was following along in another season. Her preferred style was humorous fiction. I am not sure I had a preferred at that point.

Luckily, she pretty much held my hand through that intersection. We settled on revolving our stories around an item. sweeny_todd was on the ball and wrote something up pretty quick. That made it easy for me. I read hers and went aha! I know what I will do now.

My second intersection, I ended up having more input. I unintentionally steered us in a direction that alycewilson wasn't expecting. There was a little more back and forth on the idea.

I enjoyed both after the fact. I had to work harder on them as I didn't want to drag my partners down! ;)

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Semi colons aren't REAL colons! They're just pretenders to the throne. Honestly, how can you make haggis from a SEMI colon? Sheesh...

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Twenty years ago, I thought people couldn't possibly be dumb enough to actually elect a man as stupid as W, or to think that the lesson from Vietnam was "Rah-rah the troops!" rather than, "Don't get involved in unwinnable wars that are not worldscale or directly threatening to U.S. safety." (because I didn't believe the WMD was true, and because I thought the Iraq thing was an oil-grab).

And yet, the entire country rolled over for that one. My version of Support Our Troops isn't "rah-rah"-- it's ensuring that we do not risk their lives without extremely good cause, and that we take care of them and their families after their service. Instead, we tend to do the opposite on both ends.

I still believe those things are important, but my faith in the voting public has never recovered from the fact that the W vote was close enough for Florida to make the difference AND that he was re-elected. Wow.

What else? I thought I'd be all career-focused all the time, which fell off a little after I had kids. You can't really know how you'll feel about that until it happens...

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Twenty years ago I was 25... yeah, I'm old!

There was a quote somewhere - I think maybe one of the Indiana Jones movies, about the facts vs the truth, but I can't recall the exact phraseology.

Imma gonna go to IMDB and see if I can find it...

Ah - here it is, from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
"Archaeology is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall."

[beldar.livejournal.com]

"Look Ma, the debbil!" -- Waterboy

[beldar.livejournal.com]

Actually one of the lessons of Vietnam *was* "Rah-rah the troops," due to stories (largely exaggerated or apocryphal, I'm told) of troops coming back from Nam only to be spat upon, and how dare we treat our fellow citizens that way. On the next deployment, Desert Storm (Gulf War I with the Elder Bush) I remember protesters (and there were protesters) had to constantly emphasize that they supported the troops while opposing the military action. The brisk success of that action made the general public feel that the next one would be a cakewalk -- all we had to do was "support the troops" again.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

My first impression of an intersection was that it was a weird idea and kind of scary, but I was lucky to be paired with imafarmgirl, and it was back in the day when everyone wrote nonfiction, so we weren't trying to co-write a story.

My current impression is I'm sick and tired of them, and hope not to have to deal with them for a while. Too much of a 'meh' thing. :P

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Twenty years ago I was sixteen (and yeah, this is the part where I start to feel a little old...),

Twenty years ago I was sixteen times two. NOW try to feel old.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes-- not demonizing the troop was an important lesson from Vietnam.

But it was not the only lesson, and it somehow became that when we entered the war in Iraq. :(

Simplistic thinking-- it'll get you every time.

I still laugh, evilly and with a measure of pain, at that line in "The Princess Bride" that starts, "Never get involved in a land war in Asia..."

[beldar.livejournal.com]

I've heard that the line came into being with Afghanistan in mind. =)

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

Well a few years ago somebody pointed me toward *this* place and I foolishly thought it looked completely harmless!

I also got home from work a few hours ago and had this crackpot theory that I could flop down on the couch and not take an accidental 2 hour nap.

My view of the world has *clearly* been jacked up.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I'm sure they were like "Ice cream for dinner!" and things like that. ;)

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Rugrats, Doug, Ren & Stimpy. Those were the days, man.

(Yes, I watched Ren & Stimpy when I was five. And I found it absolutely hilarious. Obviously, this is just one of many places where my parents may have gone wrong.)

[x-disturbed-x.livejournal.com]

Ah, Doug. The cartoons pretty much suck now. :P

I hated that show, haha. My parents wouldn't let me watch it but let me watch Rocko's Modern Life which was just as bad.

[porn-this-way.livejournal.com]

First impression: *HEART ATTACK*

I was terrified it was gonna be like all those times in high school where the teacher said we had to work with a partner and I'd plead with the teacher to just let me work alone and do all the work myself because OMG JUST KILL ME NOW. Except there's no pleading for mercy in Idol, whereas I could often convince my teachers to take pity on me.

Change over time: Too many of them back to back get to be a real headache because they *are* time consuming and it can be a huge hassle to coordinate with someone when both of you have other obligations and, you know, lives and stuff. BUT. I've actually had a really good time with almost of all the intersections I've done. There's only been one partner I didn't get along with, and I've actually done some *voluntary* intersections, which...if anyone had asked me if I'd ever do something like that a few years ago, the answer would be pretty much "lol bitch plz."

NGL, I still do freak out a bit because I've heard so many horror stories about partners who don't communicate or drop off the grid or demand that both entries be written in Elvish iambic pentameter or god knows what the fuck else, and I did have one situation where my partner and I had...issues which still sorta rattles me on the intersection front every time a partner week comes up, but overall, I'm not nearly as terrified of the intersection concept as I used to be, and I do try to work with people I've at least interacted with enough before to know I'm not getting stuck with a tyrant, a non-communicator, or some other species of unsavory beast.

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

My mind is in constant flux.
I am sure there are issues in which I have done a 180 on but I cant think about them now.

Politics anoy me and I find it interesting that it is so hard for politicians to grasp that the rise in costs comes from frivolous lawsuits not the uninsured.
Lets face it the costs skyrocketed when "sue the doctor/hospital" became a get rich quick scheme.
people with out insurance go with out health care or too a free clinic. When you cant afford your medicine you just don't get it.

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

20 years ago I was half my age and not as jaded.

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

My first thought was
Ahhhhh. But I am not a people person.
Odd I know as I am a role player which does involve other people. However given that most people I have roleplayed with are slightly more frightened of me then idol contestants are of Gary in a particularly good or bad mood it doesn't really count:)

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

I can remember a day when I could NOT imagine I would ever buy "bottled water."

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

We won't go there. 20 years ago, the cute guy was already retired from the military.

[bonnie-rocks.livejournal.com]

A book was just released called SLIMED! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age by Mathew Klickstein. This is relevant to your interests.

~*::Meow::*~

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Cartoons on Nick pretty much suck -- Cartoon Network? Look, I love Adventure Time and Regular Show too much to let that comment stand. ;)

R&S was daughter and daddy bonding time for me as a kid. My dad and I still quote episodes back and forth. Rocko's Modern Life was also fricken amazing. Watch it as an adult. The things that go over your head as a kid, man. xD Like Rocko working for a PHONE SEX LINE. Omggg it's great.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

I will have to buy this book, most definitely. :) Thanks.

[x-disturbed-x.livejournal.com]

A phone sex line? Wtf, haha. I need to watch that show over again.

I admit I've never seen those two CN shows. ;) They just look really weird so I avoid them, haha.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

Yes! Here, let me dig you up a youtube video...



Their weirdness is what makes them so amazing, though. Adventure Time DOES have continuity, which is also great; not to mention superb world-building and character development. :) I can gush about AT forever.

[x-disturbed-x.livejournal.com]

Lol. I can't believe I don't remember that.

I'll have to give it a chance (eventually). :P I'm sure it's better than Teen Titans Go!

Hopefully Netflix will put more episodes on. ;)

[bonnie-rocks.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!! I pre-ordered mine eons ago, but Amazon hasn't sent it yet. ::grump::

~*::Meow::*~