There's been a bit in the local newspaper quite a bit recently. It's about a fraternity member who got drunk at a party, jumped into a shallow pool, and broke his neck. He's now in a wheelchair. He's suing the fraternity, saying they should have taken better measures to prevent this accident, and therefore are responsible.

He says that the fraternity members built this shallow pool without conforming to industry safety standards, while knowing there would be drinking at the party. The fraternity then forced him to drink, and his "big brother" within the fraternity even encouraged him to make the jump into the pool (Mentioned in a prior article). To him and his lawyers, this means the fraternity should pay him $2.7 million to cover a lifetime of medical bills.

And yet, Wes could have chosen not to drink, or he could have chosen to drink smaller amounts. No one forced him to drink, they encouraged him. Strongly, yes, but one can always say no! Then, as someone with Red Cross and lifeguard training, he chose to do a bellyflop into a shallow, temporary pool in an attempt to splash people. The pool was not required to meet industry safety standards because it was a temporary pool. But because the people who encouraged him to drink where frat members (and their girlfriends!), the pool was built by frat members, and the events occurred at a fraternity party, the fraternity is obviously responsible for one person's poor decisions.

Grow up, Wes. You made bad choices. Now, accept the consequences.

Tags: rant

There's this Samsung cell phone with a variety of features that people seem to be angry about, currently. I know it's been posted about it at least three LJ communities, I'm sure many more. People say it promotes the wrong ideas about women and encourages eating disorders.


Huh? It helps someone keep track of calories burned, their BMI, and their menstrual cycle. All sound like fairly helpful things, to me. It's also being marketed specifically in Malaysia - see this post for a Malaysian's perspective. This phone seems to me to be more a marketing ploy than anything else. I don't see why one should throw such a fit about a phone. If you have problems with the apparent impressions this phone gives, work to correct society's impressions of these things, rather than banning the phone. Keeping track of calories burned and BMI can be extremely helpful for reaching and maintaining a healthy weight, and as a female who doesn't keep track of her cycle and wishes she did, trust me, that could be very helpful as well.

I just don't understand how this phone is so evil.

Tags: rant

I have a little tip for all of the males out there on that wonderful thing we call the Internet. Guess what? I'm female. Guess what? If my profile says, "Long Term Relationship," and doesn't hint that I'm looking for something "on the side," chances are I don't want to have sex with you (unless you're nugget). That fact that I am female does not give every guy on the Internet the right to IM me looking for action. A guy with the nick randraz2000 on yahoo messaged me today... This morning, during working hours (meaning if I used a "normal" IM client the message would have popped up on my screen):

hi there, listen if you need certain needs met, i'm your guy 36 married discreet looking for a needs partner.

How much of an asshole can you be? You're trying to cheat on your wife, or you're lying about trying to cheat on a wife, either way you're an ass. Plus you're IMing someone who's profile says she's in a long term relationship trying to get her to cheat, when her profile shows absolutely no interest in such activities. Guess what, dumass? If I were interested in that, I'd at least have enough sense to create a different yahoo profile for it. Males of the world: Please, don't pick random females and IM them looking for sex.

Edit April 4, 2005: Second message from him. I sent him, "You already sent me that. Please write down my nick somewhere and NEVER MESSAGE ME AGAIN. Thank you." Lets see if he can get it...

I also learned that bitlbee seems to be unable to properly block a user. Dangit.

Tags: rant