Of heat & hate, a passive aggressive story of revenge

IT'S HOT. Africa hot. Humid too. Reminds me of college, and the less then stellar dorm AC. It also reminds me of how I managed to sleep in the dorm apartments in the Summer when I had the douchebag party animals living above me.

I'm not the passive aggressive sort. In fact, most folks would generally call me aggressive (Side note, at work, I was voted most likely to have a nice twin - making me the evil one). However, back in college I found that sometimes it's better to use a little strategery vs a full frontal assault.

A bit of background. We lived in a pretty cush apartment on campus. Two guys, we each had our own bathroom and separate bedrooms, but shared a common kitchen and living room. I consider it dorm living at it's finest. We even had our own AC unit that the school paid for. We also lived on the ground floor. That was the flaw in our otherwise brilliant living arrangement. You see, we had a group of assholes who lived above us, and while we had things like class and work to deal with, they thought nothing of inviting their whole group likeminded jerks over to party beginning on Thursday, and lasting until Late Sunday.

Now, I have been known to drink my share. Back then I even would "party hardy" or some other such nonsense. I however tried to be considerate of my neighbors. I tried not to blast my stereo at o3:30 AM. I definitely didn't have parties so raucous that people would stand on my balcony and pee. The guys who lived above me had no such qualms. At first I tried to be nice. "Hey guys, would you mind being quieter?" They always would, for about 4 minutes. I tried a more straight forward approach, but I don't think they could hear my screaming. I even knocked on the door and told them in no uncertain terms to shut the fuck up.

Threats of violence usually worked, at least until the next night, so in a stroke of genius, I decided to start preempting their parties. You see, I have a basic understanding of how air conditioning works. I'm a big fan of it myself and tend to use it. Heavily. So, any time I overheard their plans for a big party, I would open my window, remove the screen, and cut the breaker to their condensing unit. (just a circuit breaker it's the first thing I would have checked) This act usually occurred somewhere around 4:00 on Friday afternoons. By the time their apartment started to get hot, the physical plant guys were already gone for the weekend. A trouble ticket was entered and they would get to it asap on Monday morning.

Nobody wanted to hang out at their apartment, because it would only blow hot air. Because of that, they decided to party at the frat house instead. Problem solved. Everyone is happy. Sunday night as I head off to sleep, I reach out the window and turn the breaker back on. Poof! Cold air starts blowing, and no problem when the physical plant guys show up on Monday morning.

I guess a full frontal assault isn't the only way to get things done.

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I like the Harry Potter series ...

I like Harry Potter and I'm not afraid to say it. I originally started reading the series because SWMBO (AKA my beautiful wife) used/uses them in her classroom. I really enjoyed the stories, and immediately became hooked. It was however a bittersweet ending, since I was really looking forward to finding out what happens, but I didn't want the series to end.

I won't go into details, so we don't need any spoiler warnings, but I thought she really tied the books up nicely with the last one. I do hope that more stories are written about the characters introduced in the prologue, but if they aren't it would still be ok.

I know many folks think J.K. Rowling is a poor author, and that kids should be reading more literature or classics, but anything that gets kids reading is fine with me.

For those that are interested, I did all the sorting tests I could find online, and I almost always came out Gryffindor followed closely by Slytherin. SWMBO was always Gryffindor/Ravenclaw (but I suspect she cheated a bit).

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Hoplophobes are silly ...

I often run across a tired meme from people who are afraid of weapons (and more specifically guns). That meme, is that "gun owners are compensating for something! *wink wink*".

Most recently I was stumbling through blogs when I ran across a woman who had a friend's boyfriend act like a jerk. (Long story short he was excited about getting a new pistol and pulled it out in front of a hoplophobe and her kid. He also made some factually incorrect statements about the pistol.) While what he did was indeed wrong (waving the gun around broke one of the 4 rules), the wailing and gnashing of teeth had less to do with his actions, and more to do with the inanimate object.

I stopped reading after a bit, because the vitriole was simply disgusting:

"He must have a small penis!"
"I hate guns!"
"You should get rid of [the woman] as a friend."
"Psycho!"
"You should report him to the police!"

It went on and on for 50+ posts.

I myself often carry a firearm around the house, and carrying a firearm around your own house (or a house of a friend if they allow it) is legal in all 50 states. The biggest difference, is most people wouldn't know I am carrying. I conceal it, and don't wave it around.

In the end, I didn't respond. It wasn't worth my time to try and convince them, but strangly enough Oleg Volk had a similar theme pop up on at least one of his forums.

His pictures tend to say it better then I can.



This image is copywritten by Oleg Volk. More can be seen at A Human Right.