Bitching vs. Complaining

This is primarily a rant. If you don't want to read me bitching then skip this post. If you want to know what made me angry enough to post then read on.

A former instructor of mine always used to say, "Don't bitch, complain." What he meant by that was if you had a problem with someone or something don't whine about it to the people that can't do anything about it. Talk to the people that can. Most people don't want to hear you moan and groan about something if they can't fix it. If you're just ranting that's one thing, but if you're asking for advice then you're usually talking to the wrong person.

I was recently told by a friend that someone we both know had been talking about me. She felt awkward being put in this situation because she is friends with both of us and didn't want to hurt either friendship. She felt that she needed to defend me but was afraid to because she didn't know what this other person would think. She also only had one side of the story.

Why is it that when people have a problem with someone they don't talk to that person? I mean if I had a problem with my brother I wouldn't go talk to my mom. I'd talk to my brother. Seems like the right thing to do. Or am I wrong?

If you have a roommate that's not paying rent, or eating all your food, or leaving trash everywhere you tell them. You don't go whine to someone that's not involved in the situation and say you're angry, and then act like everything is okay when you see your roommate. That's not fair to either of you and the situation will never get better.

You can't fix something if you don't know it's broken.

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13 Books I've Read

I'm at a loss for what to list today. I guess my life is pretty boring. Not much goes on that I find cool enough to blog about. So I'm going to start with item number one on my list of lists. Things I have made.

Or at least I was going to until I scrolled down a little bit and saw that I have already done that list. So on to number two. Books I have read. This is by no means an exhaustive list. There isn't enough time in the world or enough space on the hard drive I call a brain for that list. This is just a list of 13 of the one's I remember reading and remember liking.

1. Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
   
2. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
   
3. Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
   
4. 1984 by George Orwell
   
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
   
6. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
   
7. L'Etranger by Albert Camus
   
8. Beneath a Mountain Moon by Silver Ravenwolf
   
9. The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind
   
10. The Lord of the Ring's Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkein
    
11. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
    
12. Zen in the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams
    
13. Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams