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Apr. 25th, 2014 07:29 amFor the first time in several years, I had started harping over the supposedly corrupt teenager help industry. According to various sources I've read, while a lot of people in this industry are sued for "legal" child abuse, it seems to take multiple lawsuits just to take down one facility (which in turn could later re-emerge under a different name and staff), and those who are convicted tend to get rather light sentences (usually less than ten years, according to a certain PDF pertaining to Canada, which I've just found myself unable to re-find). Why aren't these folks getting life for kidnapping, enslavement, torture, and murder like anyone else would get, and why aren't these facilities being ordered destroyed?
Probably for similar reasons why George Zimmermann was acquitted for shooting Trayvon Martin, somewhere where he didn't even belong, while black people get sentenced to life for trying to protect themselves with Florida's Stand Your Ground laws without actually hurting their aggressors.
In any case, the following article would explain why people tend to focus on negative things like this while overlooking all the world's outweighing positivity. I even showed it to Mom yesterday, and the real topic of this entry is what we discussed after she read part of it.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-reasons-news-looks-worse-than-it-really-is/
According to her, despite what a lot of sources say, most teen help programs are not run by douchebags. Most of the people working in it got there by studying child and teenager psychology, because they really do care about the well-being of people who need help, and most of these claims of abuse being "legalized" aren't any more valid than certain people's conspiracy theories about 9/11 or people's accusations of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.
Furthermore, people tend to overreact at what they hear or read, thinking that something is on the rise based on only one such actual incident, when in fact the only reason it got so much attention in the first place is because it's such a rare occurrence that it warrants media attention. One kid gets molested by a priest or kidnapped by a complete stranger, and parents all over the place are up in arms about their kids' safety. I even once read a news article about a drive-by shooting when I was 15, and subconsciously feared that someone in a passing car might shoot me for no reason on my way to my mailbox, even though the actual incident in question was supposedly gang-related in some way.
Finally, if I really wanted to make any kind of difference about this whole thing, one thing I could do would be to return to college, take some child psychology courses, set up my own institution, and set an example of how these places should be run. Becoming a lawyer is out of the question for me, since that would require a Ph.D., although Mom did say that I could aim to become a paralegal.
-----
About finding any kind of work, though, I probably owe myself an explanation as to why I've hardly making any efforts of my own.
To start with, upon finishing college at the end of 2009, I really did need some downtime before I'd start looking for work, and I had no clue at all as to how I'd go on about it when I would. For three years, I pretty much defaulted on a few agencies that this referral service called VESID asked at Mom's request to help me, and they hardly ever did anything meaningful. Mom eventually terminated her contract with VESID not long after things failed to work out with the day program at Community Enterprises of New York. From there, I read this book containing tips for autistic people on how to find employment, and asked Mom to read it through afterwards so that she could help me actually go on about finding work. Actually, I usually only made a big deal out of it whenever I planned something that I would need a regular income for, but would then drop it not long after.
Maybe the whole thing disorients me because I've been living in my comfort zone and relying too much on others for a bit too long. However, also worth noting is the opportunity Mom pointed out to me not too long ago, to get training and employment as a programmer by Brian, an opportunity that wouldn't require me to take classes that she would end up having to pay for. Brian himself even said that he would like to see my fantasy of a 32-bit-style* Earthbound-like game become an actual game.
(*Bound to be mentioned sometime, but I say 32-bit-style because, while the Game Boy Advance technically was a 32-bit system (as was the Virtual Boy more than a generation prior), we all know that its games looked nowhere as refined as on the Playstation, the Sega Saturn, or even the Sega 32X. A lot of them, Mother 3 included, would have probably looked the same and sounded better on the 16-bit Super NES.)
As far as Brian does go, I was able to get some tutorials in with him while he was here. Even when he went to California on a job, he was able to send me a work order, most of which I had completed, but started having some trouble with. Took a while to address the issue in question with him due to everything else that had been going on in life. He did answer the first of two emails I sent him regarding the order so far, but I do understand how busy he is with his job that he doesn't have time to answer all his emails.
As for The Web Game Developer's Cookbook, yeah, I did have a look through that book's second chapter and my own work corresponding to it, and even did find several typos. However, the pertaining game was still bugged, and not only did I need Brian's help in locating further typos, but he even said that some details that the book instructs are in some way wrong and told me what to type instead. Really, I just don't think I can approach that without his help.
So, I'm still waiting for Brian to get back to me regarding the work order (don't know when he will), and I also have a certain scene in Starbound's fourth chapter to rewrite and have Jake and Chelle critique. That latter thing is something that BHS, author of the now completed Stars Above, said he'd look out for after I told him in a PM exchange on TV Tropes & Idioms more than a week ago that I'd have ready within a couple of weeks from there. That happens to be another thing I've had a hard time motivating myself to take care of, but I very much intend to once I explain to Chelle why I set things up the way I did and maybe get some tips on how to write it better. (That will be the basis of an upcoming f-locked entry containing a convo I had with Jake, which he even asked me to email to him.)
So, yeah, seeing the work order through will be a priority once I hear back from Brian, but in the meantime, so is polishing up the Starbound chapter and making some changes to existing chapters.
Actually, the fic itself is another major reason why I haven't really sought work. However, Mom did mention yesterday that while the catboat Dad used to work on was a similar aspiration of his, he still had to spend most of his time building cabinets for various clients but still did have enough leisure to do any amount of work a year with the boat. Should've also noted when it was relevant, but I also remember, during one of my stays in New Jersey last year, Grandpa had the living room TV on while an episode of Dr. Phil aired, in which some lady was upset that her husband didn't actively seek work because he was busy writing some kind of book; the doc mentioned that he himself had written at least six books during his career as a psychologist.
So, yeah, let me just tie up some loose ends with the Starbound chapter, and then we can talk some more.
Probably for similar reasons why George Zimmermann was acquitted for shooting Trayvon Martin, somewhere where he didn't even belong, while black people get sentenced to life for trying to protect themselves with Florida's Stand Your Ground laws without actually hurting their aggressors.
In any case, the following article would explain why people tend to focus on negative things like this while overlooking all the world's outweighing positivity. I even showed it to Mom yesterday, and the real topic of this entry is what we discussed after she read part of it.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-reasons-news-looks-worse-than-it-really-is/
According to her, despite what a lot of sources say, most teen help programs are not run by douchebags. Most of the people working in it got there by studying child and teenager psychology, because they really do care about the well-being of people who need help, and most of these claims of abuse being "legalized" aren't any more valid than certain people's conspiracy theories about 9/11 or people's accusations of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.
Furthermore, people tend to overreact at what they hear or read, thinking that something is on the rise based on only one such actual incident, when in fact the only reason it got so much attention in the first place is because it's such a rare occurrence that it warrants media attention. One kid gets molested by a priest or kidnapped by a complete stranger, and parents all over the place are up in arms about their kids' safety. I even once read a news article about a drive-by shooting when I was 15, and subconsciously feared that someone in a passing car might shoot me for no reason on my way to my mailbox, even though the actual incident in question was supposedly gang-related in some way.
Finally, if I really wanted to make any kind of difference about this whole thing, one thing I could do would be to return to college, take some child psychology courses, set up my own institution, and set an example of how these places should be run. Becoming a lawyer is out of the question for me, since that would require a Ph.D., although Mom did say that I could aim to become a paralegal.
-----
About finding any kind of work, though, I probably owe myself an explanation as to why I've hardly making any efforts of my own.
To start with, upon finishing college at the end of 2009, I really did need some downtime before I'd start looking for work, and I had no clue at all as to how I'd go on about it when I would. For three years, I pretty much defaulted on a few agencies that this referral service called VESID asked at Mom's request to help me, and they hardly ever did anything meaningful. Mom eventually terminated her contract with VESID not long after things failed to work out with the day program at Community Enterprises of New York. From there, I read this book containing tips for autistic people on how to find employment, and asked Mom to read it through afterwards so that she could help me actually go on about finding work. Actually, I usually only made a big deal out of it whenever I planned something that I would need a regular income for, but would then drop it not long after.
Maybe the whole thing disorients me because I've been living in my comfort zone and relying too much on others for a bit too long. However, also worth noting is the opportunity Mom pointed out to me not too long ago, to get training and employment as a programmer by Brian, an opportunity that wouldn't require me to take classes that she would end up having to pay for. Brian himself even said that he would like to see my fantasy of a 32-bit-style* Earthbound-like game become an actual game.
(*Bound to be mentioned sometime, but I say 32-bit-style because, while the Game Boy Advance technically was a 32-bit system (as was the Virtual Boy more than a generation prior), we all know that its games looked nowhere as refined as on the Playstation, the Sega Saturn, or even the Sega 32X. A lot of them, Mother 3 included, would have probably looked the same and sounded better on the 16-bit Super NES.)
As far as Brian does go, I was able to get some tutorials in with him while he was here. Even when he went to California on a job, he was able to send me a work order, most of which I had completed, but started having some trouble with. Took a while to address the issue in question with him due to everything else that had been going on in life. He did answer the first of two emails I sent him regarding the order so far, but I do understand how busy he is with his job that he doesn't have time to answer all his emails.
As for The Web Game Developer's Cookbook, yeah, I did have a look through that book's second chapter and my own work corresponding to it, and even did find several typos. However, the pertaining game was still bugged, and not only did I need Brian's help in locating further typos, but he even said that some details that the book instructs are in some way wrong and told me what to type instead. Really, I just don't think I can approach that without his help.
So, I'm still waiting for Brian to get back to me regarding the work order (don't know when he will), and I also have a certain scene in Starbound's fourth chapter to rewrite and have Jake and Chelle critique. That latter thing is something that BHS, author of the now completed Stars Above, said he'd look out for after I told him in a PM exchange on TV Tropes & Idioms more than a week ago that I'd have ready within a couple of weeks from there. That happens to be another thing I've had a hard time motivating myself to take care of, but I very much intend to once I explain to Chelle why I set things up the way I did and maybe get some tips on how to write it better. (That will be the basis of an upcoming f-locked entry containing a convo I had with Jake, which he even asked me to email to him.)
So, yeah, seeing the work order through will be a priority once I hear back from Brian, but in the meantime, so is polishing up the Starbound chapter and making some changes to existing chapters.
Actually, the fic itself is another major reason why I haven't really sought work. However, Mom did mention yesterday that while the catboat Dad used to work on was a similar aspiration of his, he still had to spend most of his time building cabinets for various clients but still did have enough leisure to do any amount of work a year with the boat. Should've also noted when it was relevant, but I also remember, during one of my stays in New Jersey last year, Grandpa had the living room TV on while an episode of Dr. Phil aired, in which some lady was upset that her husband didn't actively seek work because he was busy writing some kind of book; the doc mentioned that he himself had written at least six books during his career as a psychologist.
So, yeah, let me just tie up some loose ends with the Starbound chapter, and then we can talk some more.