I feel vindicated about that apology thing

I’m really big on apologies. I mean, I hate to apologize, because it sucks to acknowledge that I was wrong, but I think it’s even worse not to say anything when I clearly wasn’t in the right. My mom never used to apologize when she was obviously wrong, and it made me angry. Why would she admit that she was wrong, and then not take the obvious (to me) next step and apologize to the person she’d wronged? I didn’t get it, and I felt that it undercut some of the things she and my father taught me about being a good person. She got over it and began to apologize like a normal person when I was a teenager (why then? I don’t know), and I really feel like it has contributed to our generally excellent relationship today.

And apologizing is not just for myself or my mom; I feel that everybody could benefit from including more sincere apologies in their life. I know it sucks to say sorry, but I feel that what one gets in return, the other person’s restored faith in your understanding of right and wrong, and perhaps in the universe at large, not to mention maybe forgiveness, is worth more than wounded pride. Anywhozit, here’s a list of some interesting psychological studies that were conducted in 2009, including one on apologizing.

Eeeeeevil

Dating site BeautifulPeople.com just shoved a bunch of its members back into the rating process, after other “vigilant members” noticed that these people had gained weight. That seems pretty cold to me, but what does the site’s owner have to say?

“As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld,” said site founder Robert Hintze. “Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”

Jesus. That’s cold. The professional first half of that quote left me completely unprepared for the part where he thought that using the term “fatties” was a good idea.

I’ve heard of self-flagellation, but this is ridiculous

Although the article clearly states that it was Justin Hussin who Robert Lowry attacked and killed with a golf club, the headline makes no such distinction. Sure, editors make more money, but if you hang onto them, you minimize the risk of having this happen. Not to lose sight of the fact that one young man died here and another ruined his own life, but jeez…how many seconds of pondering this headline would it have taken to figure out what was wrong here? (Answer: not very many.)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everybody! I hope your 2010 is off to a lovely start.

Satanski and I were watching videos online and I realized that I never posted this one. Jason Mraz + Sesame Street = Two great tastes that taste great together. My nephew was really confused as to why Jason Mraz was on Sesame Street, but thought it was cool to see Mraz singing with Elmo and Big Bird.