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2003-10-09 - 8:06 p.m.

The sensing session was actually kind of enjoyable this morning. I monopolized much of the conversation. They said I could go home once I got there, since they realized it was my break day. But once woken up and already being there, I chose to stay. Seeing as how I've been at Fort Gordon since time began, and this was only my second sensing session, I had a lot to say, and boy did I ever give them a piece of my mind about such things as awards (negative) and the officers in our unit (positive). I left feeling pretty good having gotten some things off my chest, and worked out for a while. I also took a 3 hour nap, discovered the perfect SAT math book for me (SAT math for the clueless, or something to that effect), painted in my van, and hung out with the kitties. A pretty good day.

However, I just started talking to Seth, who has succeeded in pissing me off. He asked me what was offensive to me, and I said "The way women are portrayed in today's society." He asked for an example, so I gave him one I noticed most recently, in an advertisement in Time magazine. It was an ad for some kind of pad that you place on your body anywhere you need it for sore muscle relief. There were three sort of abstract looking people: two dudes, one biking and one backpacking, and one woman. Can you guess what the woman was doing? Holding a gardening hoe. Here you've got two guys doing strenuous sports, and you've got the woman, who's at home in the garden. It's an extremely subtle thing, but it just goes to show! Why not have the woman engaging in a strenuous sport as well? And Seth's response was, "Actually gardening is very strenuous. And how many men do you know who garden that are under 65? The stereotype is not unfounded. I know many women who garden. I get fresh vegetables from them all the time." I told him he was missing the point. Then I told him he was pissing me off. He replied that he didn't even really have an opinion on the matter, it's just his nature to be the devil's advocate.

I don't mind when people play that role when they're talking to me, because it helps define my point and it makes my thoughts on the matter come across more clearly. But in Seth's case, he doesn't do it to get more information from me, he does it just to try to prove me wrong. He's not listening to what I have to say for the information involved, he's listening to see what he can say back that will completely invalidate my opinion. And why? To make himself feel superior maybe?

It just ticks me off when people engage in conversations to make themselves feel superior at the expense of the person they're talking to. Talk to me, if I'm wrong teach me something I don't know, but for God's sake, don't talk to me if you're just going to argue with me for no good reason! Man!

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