DevArt has sort of fallen by the wayside for me . . . sadly. But hopefully that will no longer be the case. Seeing as how I don't have a job, and now I'm not going to be living with my friends, I'll have plenty of free time to write, which will be nice. I've really been having a lot of excess thoughts, and hopefully written down musings will help them get out of my head.
Although I have to say that I honestly feel very dumb and childish right now. I thought I was maturing quite a bit, but I guess not. Of course, no one likes to be told they're wrong, but I can't help but feel that I'm in way over my head, and have no real maturity at all.

This thought comes from two separate instances that occurred yesterday:

First, I got into a political debate over facebook of all things. And then I was subsequently p'wnd by an incorrect claim that I made and then told by the person that started the argument that I was being irrational and making "radical" claims that had no basis in fact. What it really came down to was that neither of us liked being told that we were wrong. Yes, in that one claim that she caught me on, I was wrong, I will admit that. In everything else, I was firmly based in fact, not in fantasy libertarian/conservative land like her.
I have to say, just because something is your "opinion" doesn't mean that it's based in fact and is FACTUALLY correct. And that goes for both sides of the argument; I will submit to that. I can make some pretty outrageous claims when I'm angry or inflamed by someone else in a political or religious debate, but I like to think that I'm still pretty informed and FACTUALLY accurate in MOST of the things that I say. There's a difference between an intellectual debate between two different parties and just plain picking a fight. If you're picking a fight, I'm going to try to cut you down any way I can; simply because I think that your an idiot for telling me I'm wrong to think what I think ESPECIALLY when I most definitely make a pointed effort to be VERY informed and caught up on current events.(And I feel like I get a lot of my information from a more credible source than Fox News). The BBC is credible. Fox News (also known as the above mentioned libertarian/conservative fantasy land) is not credible in my opinion. If you're a news source and you're being paid off to spin stories a certain way, YOU ARE NOT CREDIBLE.
So really, that whole incident just left a bad taste in my mouth and made me feel very mean and immature. Once the aforementioned girl told me that I was being irrational and that she couldn't continue to talk to me until I got my facts straight, my immediate reaction was to insult her personally. That's never a good thing. But I was so much on the defense, that it made sense to me. I didn't post it on facebook or say it to her or anything, but I did say it to some other people who don't know her, after I explained the situation. Looking back on it now, it's really no harm done, the people I ranted to are never going to meet this girl and she'll never know that I criticized her, but I still felt bad later when I had calmed down.

Second, it was one of my older friend's birthday's today, and we all got together at mutual friend's house to drink and celebrate at midnight last night. I was only sort of pseudo-invited, but I went anyway, because I wanted to be there for my friend on his birthday and meet my other friend's new kitty. I didn't even really drink that much, because I didn't want to to mooch. But it just seemed like I was so young and out of place with all of these people who were 21, 22, and 23. Some were even older. I met my friend's cat and her boyfriend and proceeded to tell a story about another thing that had happened on facebook involving some of my mother's friends. I was immediately correct by my friend's boyfriend as I was trying to show off how witty I could be by telling this story and he pretty much just completely shut me down and used a tone of voice that said "shut the hell up kid." So I pretty much stayed quiet the rest of the night, unless I spoke up to insert a generic comment into a conversation or something like that.
I like to think that my older friends don't see me as a complete joke, but when things like that happen, I can't help but think that they just put up with me because I can be funny SOMETIMES or smart SOMETIMES. It's all very frustrating and saddening, not that I want to be taken too seriously, because yes, when it comes down to it, I am still a kid. At the same time, I like to think that I know what I'm talking about, at least a little bit. I don't know, I guess it's just something that I'll have to get over:
There will always be people that you disagree with and there will also be those who just have no patience for anyone else's ideas and/or thoughts if they don't completely agree with the fact/logic behind it.

But whatever. Shit happens.