Becoming a Badass

Several people in this town seem to think they are such bad-asses. Truth be told, I think I have been with two year olds who are more controversial than most people here. And with tasteful remarks such as, "Like a boss", springing up in everyday dialogue, one cannot help but become aware of how much people think they get away with things around here, and how non-bad-ass these things are.

This thought takes me back to the day I crashed an IR lecture (the reasons for this shall remain undisclosed, although most of us know there's only one reason, and one reason only, for crashing an IR lecture these days). One fine specimen of IR student loudly blurted out, "I am taking sushi into this lecture hall. I am such a bad-ass. What are they going to do to me, huh?". Now, unless that sushi was meant to be given to an undercover agent and was rolled to kill, there is very little to be proud of, in bad-ass terms. I think the repressed bad-ass in her was really trying to make its way into the real world though. I wonder if the bad-ass voice of her subconscious told her it was a better idea to slam into the lecture theatre's door in order to open it, rather than using the more conventional method of, oh, I don't know, the door handle?! Maybe I'm just too mainstream.

Then I see those people at the library's water fountain: seriously guys, the button says PUSH, why are you lifting it? Your bottle is not filling up faster, and the bad-ass alter ego can hardly be impressed. Bad-asses are supposed to be a source of upheaval, not insult. I get violent instincts when I see people throwing recyclables into the wrong containers. Just how lazy can one be? The yellow trash can IS RIGHT NEXT to the green one. And there's big letters on them too, don't you dare tell me you're colour-blind.

Lately, however, there's one particular, unidentified, bad-ass who I'm feeling strongly unhappy with. Whoever takes the time to put another house's bin inside our gate really needs to find something better to do. That's not bad-ass: that's just repressed freeganism.