Monday is for ranting

Who is ready for more of my rants? Rhetorical question bitches, here we go.

My pet peeve of the week is people who delight in their willful ignorance of world geography. Normally this topic doesn't come up in day to day conversation (or Facebook or Twitter postings), but with the Olympics on, it's forced some people to acknowledge that this isn't really how Europe looks:

So that's where Socialists come from? I thought Obama was supposed to be Kenyan.

Here's the thing: we all have weaknesses. It doesn't matter if you have gaps in your knowledge, the thing that annoys me is the "Teehee!" attitude about it, like it's cute to admit that you don't know half of the countries marching in the Olympics opening ceremony. If I honestly didn't know a large chunk of the countries, I would at least have the decency to be too embarrassed to post about that on social media. For example, math is my Achilles heel and I got my only B in grad school in my statistics course. I don't think it's cute that I've forgotten more math than most people ever know, I actually find it pretty frustrating. At least I married an engineer who can do ridiculous math in his head and to my knowledge, has no Achilles heel.

This killed me.

But here's the thing about geography: it's not hard and it's a pretty finite topic. With only a moderate amount of effort, you can familiarize yourself with a large amount of information and guess what? That information won't become obsolete and it's not even complicated! It's mostly basic rote memorization that a child could do and even Faith already has a globe (sure, it's stuffed and she mostly uses it to throw at the dog, but it counts).

Here's my public service request: if you were watching the Olympics opening ceremony and you hadn't heard of 25% or more of the countries, please buy yourself this book for Christmas and read a page a day:

If you're a cheap bastard, it's also online for free

You can even find out fun things in that book like if people from Gabon are called Gabonians or Gabonites (hint: it's Gabonese).

Yes, I do realize that as someone with a master's in international relations that I'm biased on this topic, but I reserve my right to be a snobby bitch about willfully ignorant people who have access to a wealth of information and don't use it.

It's ok if you're thinking this

Phew, ready for Rant #2?

I don't understand people who think that a magical running fairy visited me and granted me some kind of special powers and abilities. I hate to break it to you if that's what you thought too, but there is really nothing special about me (or anyone else who runs on a consistent basis).

Do you think running is easy for me? Here's the answer:

The only thing about it that might be easier for me is that I'm used to putting in the work and it's part of my routine. A big part of running is learning to embrace suffering (especially if you do endurance events) and it's not a special ability, it's just a mindset.

I'll meet other people who don't run at all, or not consistently, and they'll say things like like "Wow, I could never do that!" or "You must be super human!" with a follow up of "I wish I could do that!". Here's the thing: you can. The only thing stopping you is you. I could think of 10 reasons on any given day why I shouldn't run (too hot, Faith is fussy, I didn't sleep well, I feel queasy, Jupiter is in retrograde, etc.) but my mindset is to find a way to fit in a run into my life, not a way to justify why it won't work today. That's not a really popular thing to say to people's faces, so I just bottle it up inside, so this is my outlet.

Whatever Mommy, you should be giving me full credit for being your personal trainer. 

Also, I don't have a job. I really credit a lot of my ability to run almost every day with being unemployed. Maybe that's my super power? That doesn't explain why the other stay at home moms at toddler story time at the library think I'm a freak, but that could be the smell I have since I normally finish my run right before story time starts. Some of them like telling me why they would run, if only...fill in the blank reason, so maybe they are jealous of my sweaty hair style, or maybe they are trying to hint that I should do more than take a whore's shower before sitting in a small room with them.


What are your opinions on these topics? Please keep this in mind: