Dogs Barking at Night Make Me Hulk Out

Here is an IM conversation with a friend at work about me going off on a neighbor last night about their damn yappy dog (mind you, I love dogs, it's their owners that can be jackasses).

monkeyman_3d: i had to tell a neighbor last nite to shut their damn dog up
monkeyman_3d: they have a lil yappy dog, and they let it out early in the morning and late at night, the dog just stands out in the back yard 'bark bark bark bark bark bark bark...'
monkeyman_3d: 10:30 at fuxn night, mind you.
monkeyman_3d: this goes on for about 10 minutes, so i finally go out there, jump up on the fence, the lady who lives there was just sitting in her living room. so i shine a flashlight right in her face, she comes to the back door, says 'What?'
monkeyman_3d: I tell her, 'Can you not hear your dog barking? This happens a lot and is starting to get old'
monkeyman_3d: she says, 'oh, he doesnt do that very often' and at that point, i nearly freaked out. but instead i say 'every day lady... almost every day... I tell you what, it happens again, i'm gonna record the barking and call Animal Control, i'm sick of it.'
DM: haha---that's my neighbor's dog too. if i could hear it in bed over the a/c, i would have to tape its mouth shut
monkeyman_3d: 6:30 in the morning, after 10pm every night
DM: that's funny that you shined on her right in her house. i'll bet you'll be friends forever now!
monkeyman_3d: the thing that pissed me off the most is her just sitting there, watching tv while the dog is going off. it's a small dog, so of course the loudness of its bark is inversely proportional to its size. i dont think it even stops long enough to take a breath
monkeyman_3d: yeah, fux her
monkeyman_3d: it was one of those big ass flashlights, too. i spotlighted her sorry ass
DM: actually our dog acorn does that. not solid 10 minute intervals, but a couple minutes at a time just staring at the fence or up at the sky. i'm not sure what in the hell she's barking at, but we have to make her stay inside after about 9:30.
monkeyman_3d: yeah, i dont really care if it's during the day, dogs will be dogs, but if it wakes me up in the morning, aaaaahhhh snap!
monkeyman_3d: i'm gonna fux her narrow chain smoking ass up next time
DM: hahaha
monkeyman_3d: she's lucky i'm not mean to animals, or i'd get out the water hose and spray that lil yapper down
monkeyman_3d: or wait till her or her hubby comes to the back door, then hop up ninja style on the fence with the water balloons.
DM: heehee. i just sent an email about ninjas. ninjas are everywhere
monkeyman_3d: yes they are

A Rant of Gothic proportions.

What the hell is Goth anyway? And why has it spawned a Gothic community? These are questions that came to my mind and I set out to answer those questions.


My trip started on a website called Goth.net. It seemed to be a great place to start and try and get a sense of “Gothness” in all it’s subtleties and nuances. Searching through the site under the “What is Goth Section” I soon learned that Goth was as indefinable as “society” and was not bound by any one set of beliefs or moral standards. That it was a group of free thinkers that came together because they had been spurned by “Normality”. That the only unifying feature that cut straight across all Goth’s was the manner of dress. This constant, it seems, is wearing black clothes.

So we have two features of Goth defined. Firstly, that it is as indefinable as “society” and secondly, that it has a particular style of dress attached that a member of this subculture would adhere to in order to be part of the subculture. I hate to break it to Goths, but society has been well defined and there are thousands of books that do a very good job of detailing how a society functions, even right down to the part about subcultures, of which they claim to be. Of course, this would require them to read those books and reading those books, it seems to me, might just make the facade of Goth crash in on them. Subcultures are micro-societies within the larger society and carry over all the same rules as the greater society, but generally just change them up a bit, just enough to achieve some level of difference that allows the people in the sub-culture to feel like they are inside the bubble of new and out side the bubble of the old, where they felt rejected. The reasons for wanting that feeling are as varied as the individuals in the sub group, but the result is the same. A new group established to allow its members to feel like they are apart of something that in some way relates to who they are. Everyone seeks this through whatever choices they make of where to fit in. And yes I said it, “fit in”. The second thing that defines a Goth is the manner of dress. This is the most glaring example of carrying over the same rules into the subculture and changing them in order to establish someone as being in the new culture, and the first clue that Goth is not a culture of free thought, but rather a culture tethered to what has gone before and at its heart has adherence to the “culture type” as firmly imbedded in it as the mainstream.

The standardization of dress is a way for the sub-group to establish “normality” within itself. I give the perfect example from Goth.net. In the section “How do I get into Goth?” I offer the following quote, “This is the simplest part of the page. Go check out our Community section over on the left, and use it to find out what is going on in your local area. Goths tend to be accepting and open minded. Just turn up to a club or event wearing all black and you are already in the Goth scene.” I wonder how “open minded” they would be to a group of people showing up that belonged to the mainstream and did not “fit in”.

Please stop fooling yourself with the “we are free thinkers” bit. Opening up every option and having an everything goes attitude does not make you a free thinker, at the very best it makes you non-judgmental and at the worst it makes it impossible for people to truly reach conclusions, because in doing so you would reach a point where you would have to make decisions on things, and that would mean rejecting some things. Which is very non Goth right? Free thinking is thinking without bias, but you will still reject ideas, or you are not thinking at all.
 
In looking at Goth Art, Goth Music and Goth writing I find in overly dominated with self indulgent, pity wallowing. I like a lot of what I see and hear in the art and music, but Goth is a “one trick pony” that you soon tire of. The “society just does not get me, my pain and the void in my soul” act just does not play well, for very long. We get it. We have our own, and feel no need to foist it upon others then cry out that we are not understood. It is merely that others simply do not give a fuck and no matter how much you rub it in their face they will not.

Just in looking around during the process of writing this I personally am sick of seeing web cam pic’s of betty page wannabe’s looking sullen and disinterested and guys that think they are The Crow. I mean, god damn, how original is that? By all means be different, but at least be self aware enough to understand what you drives to be so.