Under attack

This blog post will probably land me in some hot water with a significant part of my readership in the next couple of days, but this is why I have my own blog that I don't share.

There are times I'd like to just like to be off somewhere serene by myself and not have to deal with the drama that comes with living with other people. Before I get further, let me say that I typically enjoy spending time with the people I choose to spend time with. That's why I choose to spend time with them. This particular displeasure is uncommon for me and is temporary. (Can you tell I'm trying to do some preemptive damage control here?)

But I got attacked this morning for, I was going to say no reason, but there was definitely a reason. I'll even admit it was a valid reason. What bothered me most was that I felt like it was unnecessarily harsh. I was waiting for the referee to come out on the field and make the call, but he didn't, meaning that I'd have to take care of it myself.

There are times to fight back, times when you should just take it because it's stupid and doesn't hurt, and then there are times when you deserve to get smacked. I fit into this last category, but I didn't deserve the reaming that I was getting, so I set some boundaries for what I would listen to and what I wouldn't.

Which made me think of a meeting I was in today. Someone (not the person in charge) was blanketly condemning everyone in the meeting for not being prepared enough and that caused us to "waste time". I was tempted to point out that our little discussion about wasting time was wasting more time than continuing the way we were going, but that wouldn't have gone over well. And I didn't feel like picking a fight because that really would have derailed the meeting and no one likes to be a captive audience to two purposely obnoxious people verbally slugging it out. I was thinking about the other people in the room.

So I'm listening to Ben Harper redo a Led Zeppelin song and it's got me thinking about that kind of thing. I tried to remember if Led Zeppelin remade someone else's songs, but then gave up and decided they probably did. It shows you're a part of the club, educated in that sphere. I can't remember if there's a specific term for that, but I'm sure there is. And I'd be willing to bet it's something obvious, like "referencing." But filmmakers do it all the time, authors frequently refer to previous works, and even the most innovative bands remake someone else's song at some point.

Anyway, some days, I would just like to be a mountain man, but only for a little while. And not today, because it's cold. Maybe I could be a mall man today or OOOH! I know! A Barnes and Noble man. That sounds highly appealing. Or maybe I could see a preview screening of Iron Man today. I thought I saw that there were tickets available around here.