Thorn Wilde

I had a walkman when I was a kid. A slightly more modern version than the one they were looking at, though. Among other things it had an eject button. I had so many cassette tapes... When we were going on road trips I had to decide ahead of time which ones I wanted to bring and listen to. A few years later I got a cd-player instead, and when that broke I got a minidisk. Then that broke too, and I found my dad's very old CD-player, which was as old as I was and portable but not really, so I decided to use that until the MD was fixed and I felt really cool and retro. I couldn't really walk around with it, but it worked for the bus and stuff. In 2004 I got an iPod and have used those since.

Read all the stories by all the authors, though. Cause there are so many awesome ones!

Thank you! That means a lot. I enjoyed your observations, and am very glad the story made you think. Thanks for reviewing!

Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Welcome, LitLover!!

This was a busy week for me, sorry. And I'm so stuck on the next chapter of Nemesis 2!! >.< But I SHALL be on the list next week! That is my goal!!

Prom is such a foreign concept to me... I always watch those episodes of TV shows with fascination. We don't have anything like that here... Our school dances were usually just like any old party plus fancy dress, and tended to be organised by the students if they happened at all. Dates are also a foreign concept. People would mostly just go stag if they weren't seeing someone already, and then just dance with whomever they liked. I remember we had a Halloween dance for my year at school when I was in middle school, and my school tried to arrange a yule ball one year.

Okay, a moment of honesty if you please. Raise your baaaaaaa sign, everyone who's written a post on GA they thought was clever and then felt a little bit disappointed when nobody pressed like.

I should add that I'm pretty sure that song is at least partly meant to be ironic. The first time I heard it I interpreted it to be a satirical comment to the selfie culture. But, of course, I can't really say anything about the intentions of the writers.

Welcome, Irritable1! I'm sure you'll find a comfortable home here, as so many others have before you.

I admit that I've taken the odd selfie... Usually they involve wine or another alcoholic beverage. To me social media is more about being heard than about being seen. I'll use Twitter and Facebook to share things that are important to me, to bring up things I think people should know about. That said, there's definitely a culture of entitlement here, especially among people even younger than myself. Some kids seem to value their entire existence on how many likes they can get on Facebook, and that's sad. And of course people want validation. We're pack animals, so it's only natural that we want to know that we take up a valued space in our community/circle/group of friends. But the extent to which some people will get upset or feel depressed if they don't get the attention they seek I think brings up an alarming reality with regards to the younger generations. While some of it has simply grown out of technology and social media, I also think that school systems can be partly to blame. I'm all for positive reinforcement myself, but I think that this culture of participation trophies, show and tell, rewards for simply being present gives kids the wrong message at the same time as constant guidance, safety regulations and what-not teaches them to be codependent rather than trusting in their own judgment. That's no way to build confidence. Instead it breeds insecurity when the real world fails to provide the same kind of positive reinforcement and guidance.

Well, yeah, but that goes for everything, doesn't it?

Thank you all!

Used instruments in general are a good thing. An instrument with a history will treat you better.

I've run out of likes... Thank you all so much! You are awesome!! <3

Surely you mean '71, not '75?

That's so sad!

He was only 27 when he died (same age as Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson and Amy Winehouse to mention a few members of the infamous Club 27), and teenagers have had crushes on far older celebrities. I think they'll live.

I adore Nirvana. My favourite song is Pennyroyal Tea, I think. But I like all their songs. Just a couple of days ago it was exactly 20 years since Kurt Cobain killed himself. Sad. EDIT: Watching the video now, and the fact that one of those kids sounds surprised when she says, 'He sounds the same when it's live' makes me weep for the younger generation. Ugh.

Well, I hope it's at least reasonable to think that the American criminal justice system puts enough focus on therapy and rehabilitation that that won't happen.

Everyone must be nice to Chris, because Chris one of my best friends. We've known each other for aaaages, and shared a flat with two other people when we moved away from home. Chris is awesome. So, basically, if you mess with Chris you mess with me!

Woo! The Chris is here!!

The Brooklyn Bro sounds pretty much like every single hipster I know. And somehow the Masshole seems like the least annoying to me. At the very least he's an honest douche, you know? No airs and graces, you can just tell, right up front, what he's like. The Dallas Bro is the most like the Norwegian bro, I think, if you replace brown liquors with lager and disregard the bit about finding a wife. And if he's from the city he's more into drunken cabin trips with other bros than hunting, but will still go fishing because it feels like a sufficiently manly thing to do.

For fear of sounding like a total hippie, I don't really believe that people are evil, and in particular not children. The media (and, Scotty, the British media are notorious in this respect) tends to paint us a black and white picture, which is neither fair nor helpful. Most people can be redeemed, and most people, when they do cruel things, do them for a reason. It may not be a good reason, and it's certainly no excuse, and they may sometimes be reasons that exist solely in that person's head, but they're still reasons. Random acts of cruelty are exceedingly rare. Most people who commit particularly horrible crimes either have deep psychological issues or do them as a product of the environment they live in/have grown up in, such as with most homophobic violence. With children it gets even more complicated, because they often may not fully be able to comprehend what they are doing, and their sense of judgment, impulse control, etc., has not yet matured. That doesn't mean they shouldn't have to deal with the consequences, but it does mean that they can also be helped. Both mental problems and cultural attitudes can be treated, the former with therapy and/or medication, and the latter with education.

Welcome, John, and welcome back Rico!