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Compilation post -- National Day of Silence, VTech, Hiatus.
1. Today is National Day of Silence. I went to class, though nearly didn't due to fatigue and bad sleep, and spoke up plenty -- then realized during the mid-class break that it was the Day of Silence and I should have kept quiet. Damn. I hope you guys are doing a better job of observing it than I am.
2. VTech shooting tragedy happened on Monday. I found out about it through![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lenaf007's journal, who isn't on my flist but did take part in the YGO Anti-Hate Fest, and whose journal I clicked to randomly because I liked her Captain Jack Sparrow = Ryuuji icon.
I remember that I found out that Princess Diana died because I'd woken up early to watch something on Cartoon Network and they were showing a little bar at the top asking people to please check their local news channels. These days, it seems weird to me that a children's cartoon channel would do something like that, but back then, I waited until my mother woke up and came down, then showed it to her.
9/11, I was at piano practice with my teacher, and he mentioned it when I was leaving. We thought it was a joke, some sort of prank being played on the media. Then I came home and found out that it was all over the TV.
In poetry class today, we were talking about how often, people can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they find out about a tragedy. I guess that means no matter what else she may achieve in her life, Lena's always going to be linked to VTech in my head. Probably not how she wants to be remembered, but it's too late now.
It feels weirdly unreal to me, still. School shootings, I can kind of understand. I'm not justifying them in any way, but at least in a school, I can imagine bullies and emotional hell and having to deal with it day in and day out until you just snap. A college seems bigger to me. It's easier to just isolate yourself from those sort of elements though I know people that have had bad experiences in college, so it isn't that easy, I suppose. It still feels like in a school, you'd have a better chance of at least hitting people you dislike -- in a college, there's too big a pool of potential targets. You'd end up killing people you don't even know if you just fire at random.
It just doesn't make sense to me.
On a different note,nyrehtak brought up the 'Ismail-Ax' on the guy's arm. If there really is a connection to the Animorphs series, I have no idea how I'd react to that. He supposedly sent a 1,800 word missive to the NBC, so maybe he explained that in there somewhere. Because yes, my first thought was of Ax when I read that, but Ax was kind of way too cool to go on a killing spree in a university. I'd like the psychopaths to please leave my favorite characters alone.
3. Dani is arriving tomorrow! I am in a tizzy of trying to clean up my room for her. And then we'll get a mattress for her tomorrow, and another mattress for Neko -- Cid, if you're still willing to let me borrow a mattress, I think that I figured out a way that I can actually fit three of them into my room so that we can all crash together. My laundry's in to wash, I'm moving furniture right now, and later, I'll vacuum the room and rebuzz my hair.
From Thursday, 18th April to Monday, 22nd April, I will be offline completely. AnimeBoston + Dani + Neko = WHEEE! But, WHEEE that excludes the possibility of me being on the Net, though I might pop online late Monday after Neko's gone. Try not to do anything drastic without me.
4. Placebo concert = new t-shirt with a cornflower blue Placebo logo. Anyone who finds me that logo on the Net will make me way happy.
5.It was Sri Lankan New Year last Saturday. Happy New Year, everyone!
2. VTech shooting tragedy happened on Monday. I found out about it through
lenaf007's journal, who isn't on my flist but did take part in the YGO Anti-Hate Fest, and whose journal I clicked to randomly because I liked her Captain Jack Sparrow = Ryuuji icon. I remember that I found out that Princess Diana died because I'd woken up early to watch something on Cartoon Network and they were showing a little bar at the top asking people to please check their local news channels. These days, it seems weird to me that a children's cartoon channel would do something like that, but back then, I waited until my mother woke up and came down, then showed it to her.
9/11, I was at piano practice with my teacher, and he mentioned it when I was leaving. We thought it was a joke, some sort of prank being played on the media. Then I came home and found out that it was all over the TV.
In poetry class today, we were talking about how often, people can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they find out about a tragedy. I guess that means no matter what else she may achieve in her life, Lena's always going to be linked to VTech in my head. Probably not how she wants to be remembered, but it's too late now.
It feels weirdly unreal to me, still. School shootings, I can kind of understand. I'm not justifying them in any way, but at least in a school, I can imagine bullies and emotional hell and having to deal with it day in and day out until you just snap. A college seems bigger to me. It's easier to just isolate yourself from those sort of elements though I know people that have had bad experiences in college, so it isn't that easy, I suppose. It still feels like in a school, you'd have a better chance of at least hitting people you dislike -- in a college, there's too big a pool of potential targets. You'd end up killing people you don't even know if you just fire at random.
It just doesn't make sense to me.
On a different note,
nyrehtak brought up the 'Ismail-Ax' on the guy's arm. If there really is a connection to the Animorphs series, I have no idea how I'd react to that. He supposedly sent a 1,800 word missive to the NBC, so maybe he explained that in there somewhere. Because yes, my first thought was of Ax when I read that, but Ax was kind of way too cool to go on a killing spree in a university. I'd like the psychopaths to please leave my favorite characters alone.3. Dani is arriving tomorrow! I am in a tizzy of trying to clean up my room for her. And then we'll get a mattress for her tomorrow, and another mattress for Neko -- Cid, if you're still willing to let me borrow a mattress, I think that I figured out a way that I can actually fit three of them into my room so that we can all crash together. My laundry's in to wash, I'm moving furniture right now, and later, I'll vacuum the room and rebuzz my hair.
From Thursday, 18th April to Monday, 22nd April, I will be offline completely. AnimeBoston + Dani + Neko = WHEEE! But, WHEEE that excludes the possibility of me being on the Net, though I might pop online late Monday after Neko's gone. Try not to do anything drastic without me.
4. Placebo concert = new t-shirt with a cornflower blue Placebo logo. Anyone who finds me that logo on the Net will make me way happy.
5.It was Sri Lankan New Year last Saturday. Happy New Year, everyone!
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On a lighter note, though, HAVE FUUUUUUUUN. X) Give my ♥s to Neko and Dani, naa~? ;3
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*so shouldn't be online right now* But yes?
Yup! I shall be there! XD Hey, your floor isn't wooden. So long as I have *something* to lay on, it's no worries, mattress or not. *used to varied sleeping environments*
Monday's the 23rd ^_~ So Neko and I both leave Monday, ne? Got it! Okies.
Happy new Year to you too.
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Smile for the camera (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Jaganshi/Me/Picture102.jpg) - Plus a jacket, I'm sure. And blue jeans.
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*huggs* See you in half a day! ♥
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XD *snickers* Good luck and make sure to get some sleep! ♥
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And right, scooting off to bed now, really!
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XD Me too! or to try to! <3
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And yeah, an hour from Wellesley into Boston by bus, plus maybe forty-five minutes to get to the airport by train. So you should totally get a snack at the airport, and remember, UNDER THE SIGN OUTSIDE BY THE CURB FOR AIRTRAN!
*scared we'll miss each other and REALLY going to bed soon!*
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xD! Well, that's plane-wise xD By train/car it's a lot longer than that XD Like... 6-8 hours, I think?
Ahhh! A snack. I'll do so if... I have an appetite? XD Yup. Outside. Cars. Airtran.
*huggsles* See you in like... 8-9 hours? XD
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and fun while I was there xD
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Anyway, he was right in the age group for schizophrenia or a similar disorder to develop, and was described as a loner in an early press release, so it's possible his symptoms just went unnoticed. Many mental disorders also affect parts of the brain that normally help the paitent identify irrational behavior and seek help. I'm not worried about any possible connections to Animorphs, but it does make me sad that people's first response seems to be 'god, what a psycho freak, etc.' (not aimed at you, just in general). He was probably sick and isolated, and a little observation from his peers or an intervention from a family member could have saved a lot of lives.
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He was indeed isolated. A lot of his classmates mentioned that after the shooting. He had been hospitalized, recently, too, for conveying suicidal thoughts. He'd also been repeatedly accused for stalking girls.
I'm sure you've seen the news about the video now, but yes.
I'm glad there's someone else out there who doesn't automatically scream "freak" at this. Affected as I have been by these shootings, I can't completely blame him. He failed to get the help he needed and it is a tragedy, but...
Perhaps this will better teach friends and family to pay closer attention to warning signs?
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Freaks are people who don't go by what's normal. I'm a freak for having a red mohawk, because most people don't. He's a freak for choosing to shoot up a university full of people, because most people don't.
Being a sympathetic person is all very well, but I feel more sorry for the people who were doing nothing but just going about their every day lives, most of whom had probably never even met him or known him, and were just killed.
It's really hard for me to side with the perpetrator here because so far, there's been no evidence that he was being bullied or abused or mistreated in any way that would even come close to justifying him just randomly slaughtering strangers that hadn't done anything to him.
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I'm just saying... I can't entirely hate someone who's hurting.
It's disgusting, what he did. And God, I wish it didn't happen, but it did. I'm only hoping something good will come of it in the future.
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He actually was told to get help and sent for counselling by a teacher, but apparently didn't go. He also had a history of stalking girls, and was banned from some of his classes. So it's not that he was going completely unnoticed or uncared for. People did pick up on the oddities of his behavior, did try to get him to help, and it didn't work anyway.
As for psycho freak, meh. I wasn't really serious about wanting people who go on killing sprees to not have any of the same interests as me, but I do think it's insane to just kill at random. If he'd shot only the girl who rejected him and her friend, then yes, I'd think that was still an awful thing to do, but it would make more sense to me.
Opening fire on a classroom full of people, then going away, coming back and shooting them again, then going away a second time and returning to shoot through the door when he realized that the students were leaning against to keep him out of the room -- I seriously do think that's psychotic. There's just such a level of malice there; he's so determined to kill them all and keeps coming back.
Plus, it was premeditated. He sent all that stuff to NBC, the videotapes and manifesto and photographs, so it isn't like he had a sudden snap. He'd been planning this. And to sit down, plan to randomly kill fellow human beings that you don't even know and can't have a grudge against... Psychopath. I'm sorry, but psychopath. Schizophrenic or paranoid, maybe, but my immediate impression towards that sort of indiscriminate slaughter is to think that the guy is absolutely insane.
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And psychopath/sociopath is an actual clinical term, and is used to refer to someone with antisocial personality disorder, which this kid clearly didn't have. My point was that yeah, he was insane, that's the sad part. He was as much a victim of his insanity as the thirty people he killed. He committed murder, yes, planned it and was ruthless and vicious about it, yes, but all of that was because he was ill. With anti-psychotic medication, hospitalization, and therapy, he could have lived a mostly normal life in which he would have been no harm to anyone.
I can understand loathing what he did, but to write him off as "absolutely insane" is unfair. Not just to him, but to everyone who has struggled with and persevered against a severe mental disorder, as preachy as I know that sounds. :\ And I think I'm done ranting now, but whatever.
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And Happy New Year. :)
I hope you all have fun at the convention. ♥
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Yay! Best of luck.
If we see any Malik cosplayers, I'll take a photo of them for you. XD
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Happy New Year! I had a party hat and hung out with my Indian hall mate on the day ^^.
Have lots of fun at Anime Boston. All the best.
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Whoo, Gordan Korman! I love his Bruno and Boots stuff. *major fan of him and Animorphs* He did a booksigning at our school once but alas, I only got into his works after he had left. XD
And yeah, no worries,