noreasonneeded | IC/Overflow Post

I’m imagining the color coding system you’d invented during that week.

I knew someone like that once. I suppose I still do. Jesper’s a lot like that.

Oh this was back before different colored highlighters and fancy office supplies. The color was beige, all over, on everything.

I have noticed some similarities. It's nice to see.

Even the dinosaurs who lived in the next cave over from you? Did you all walk uphill in the snow together both ways?

Yeah. Was your brother reckless, too?

We did, and our homework was done on big big leaves.

Not particularly. At least not with people. With plants and wandering the woods? Incredibly. For a while I was convinced he kept getting into poison oak on purpose.

Your homework sounds like it missed its true calling as a fan.

That’s one area they part ways, then. Perhaps he was experimenting on himself.

Might've used it as a fan a few times. Gave it a second purpose.

To have heard him tell it, that poison oak was just always in the way of him getting to something else.

Two for one almost makes it tempting. Although I gave myself most of the work I did when learning, so I probably would have been fine with homework save for the part about someone else telling me I had to do it.

It'd be hypocritical of me to knock that sort of perseverance. Though being itchy is rather annoying.

That was always one of the worst parts, aside from getting grades back.

Honestly surprised he didn't develop immunity at some point, though eventually he did figure out how to avoid it.

Yeah. It seems very structured. My brother always wanted me to go to school. Not sure how it would have actually panned out had it ever happened. Speculating on it is pointless, I know. I don't do it much.

It’s a good way to be, though. Push through some pain to get where you want to go. Doesn’t always work out, but it’s better to try than not.

It's good for some things, terrible for others. For example, I wouldn't know any maths at all if I hadn't gone, but I also wouldn't have had to sit through film reels about how to be effectively popular with the other kids.

He was good at that. Probably also why he didn't run to Canada when I told him to.

All that sounds like a waste of time to me. I taught myself finances and through that figured out I didn’t need to make pleasant conversation as long as I was useful and made money.

Something about fighting for the greater good? I know a person like that, too. She's rather maddening about it.

But Kaz, how will you get invited to the sock hop if you don't make a good impression on the other kids at the yearbook meetings?

More like refusing to let anyone go in his place if he thought he could manage it well enough.

School made you watch videos on how to acquire a date? I suppose when marriage was pushed as much as it was and still is, I’m not surprised.

I get that, but at the same time, I also get trying to figure out how to send someone who deserves to die in one’s place. Why not remove an enemy and save your hide in the process. I know rigging or bribing something like that though would take a lot of effort. I'm also guessing he's not the sort to have known many he thought should die in his place.

Edited 2023-09-15 11:19 (UTC)

Oh yeah. How to get a date, how to date around without seeming loose, right up to how to figure out if you were ready to get married and then how to manage a home and buy groceries with all the abundance capitalism provides. Like they were trying to stuff you onto a slide all the way down to a suburban home. I still managed to be a loose communist, though, so they weren't terribly effective.

There weren't many folks Sam would've wanted to see dead, and yeah. Getting the board to just pick someone else would've been a lot more involved than getting them to 4F him. They probably would've if he'd just thought to ask.

I wonder if that’s more a testament to your character than their lack of effectiveness, but it could be a matter of both. Either way, the closest I’ve come to formal education is breaking into the university’s libraries, which I wish I could do more often. There’re online courses I’d have access to now that are more flexible than attending classes in person, but eh. Not really interested in going that route when I could just forge a diploma and identity if I ever needed one.

I’d say he sounds like a much better person than I am, but that’s a low bar to pass, so instead I’ll just stick with him sounding like a good person in general.

I'm all for breaking into libraries. Never went to university, but research can be pretty enjoyable when you're actually interested in what you're looking for. Though forgery should be a degree all on its own, I figure making your own education is better than paying other people to tell you what you already know.

He was, in general. Though I wonder sometimes what he'd think of what I am now. Hopefully he'd be as understanding as he was back then.

Agreed. I enjoy learning new things in general, but it’s easier when there’s reasons for engagement beyond just how useful the information is. And if the college offers no room for furthering one’s intellectual horizons through instruction or discussion, and there’s no need for the social connections, then it would be a poor option indeed. Especially given the exorbitant prices of some.

I can’t imagine anyone worth a second thought not giving you one too, Birdie.

Having to pay at all feels a terrible insult to the idea of education itself, but that's a whole other argument, I think. You'd have liked Abbie Hoffman, or at least 'Steal This Book.'

You're very sweet, Kaz. Thank you.

A fair argument, however. And I have not actually read that book yet, so I’ve added it to my list. Seems up my alley.

It’s just how I see it.

You ought to steal it, in keeping with the spirit of the material. A lot of it is outdated now, but the general ethos lives on.

Well, you see things sweetly, when you have a mind to.

Stealing it was, admittedly, my initial thought. Well, that and whether I should ‘borrow’ it from the university library should they carry it.

Maybe.

There wasn’t much room for thinking like that. For a very long time. Still feels a little strange to hear now.

Both options are good. Guess it depends now on whether it's at the university library or not.

New things can be strange sometimes, but they can be good, too.

Yeah, I’d have to check. There are four libraries on the campus, but that’s still no guarantee. Out of all the scouting I’ve done though, finding that out is fairly easy.

They can. And I know, acting one way with one person isn’t acting that way with everyone.

All else fails, I can see if anybody has it in their personal collections. That might be a more complicated theft, but definitely more entertaining.

It isn't, but I do like how you act with me.

It’s true that I don’t often risk having curses put on me during thefts, but I’m not against novel challenges with a worthwhile payout.

I enjoy how you act as well. I say, with the fine print to exclude attempts at blood popsicles in the future.

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