One thing you need to stop doing forever

Because I feel that while venting, you get so caught up in the situation that you do not see alternative routes of action and out-of-the-box solutions. You get caught up in the emotional anger and can't see a good action to perform. I feel action is more important than words.

But I'm not a silver lining kind of person, and I don't think I should have to be. I see things as they are. My being alive has nothing to do with my crappy circumstances except that it ensures those circumstances will continue unless I do something to motivate myself to change them. I don't motivate myself by saying 'at least I'm not dead'. I motivate myself by saying 'this is a shitty situation, and I want to get out of this shitty situation'. Being positive about crappy circumstances does nothing for me--not to say that's true for everyone, but for myself? I'm not gonna play the 'who has the worst life' game just to make myself feel better about my so-called 'first world problems'.

Not to mention the fact that when someone is venting online? Chances are you know nothing about what ELSE might be wrong in their life. Sure, you might think complaining about something that happened online is ridiculous, but on the other side of the screen is someone with a full life outside of the computer, where things are happening of which you are not aware, and it just may be that venting about things online helps them not go nuts in their personal lives. Like I said, venting and ranting can be extremely cathartic, and no one is forcing you to read these rants, so why begrudge people this outlet?

I disagree. There's always a positive to be found. Consider this one : "X happened? Well, at least I'm not dead."

Sorry, but the 'You have to eat all your food, there are starving kids in Ethiopia you know!' spiel stopped working on me when I was nine. Starving people in developing nations have nothing to do with my 'first world problems', so I don't see how the two are even comparable. Just because someone, somewhere, has it worse than I do means I shouldn't ever complain or look at shitty circumstances and say 'well that sucks'? Why? Does my complaining about my own situation somehow make the situations of those other poorly off people worse? Not to mention venting/ranting is extremely cathartic, at least for me. If I have a place to vomit my angry, ranting feels online, I feel a lot less bad about things bothering me IRL.

I'm gonna say right now, though, that there are lots of negatives that can't be turned into positives (and you're almost always wrong when using absolutes like that anyway), and if I wanna rant about those negatives, being told I should 'just be positive' ain't gonna be much help.

I wasn't thinking about freedom of speech really but I agree with you. I think a little of it is fine but complaining does get rather boring and tiresome after a while because the majority of the time, it could be resolved by actively doing something about it. It takes a stronger type of person to fix that and actually channel it all to achieve something much greater.

@Jareth I fully agree with you and I'm aware there are plenty of other citizens in other nations besides Africa who go hungry (Africa just happens to be the one people are the most aware of). My father went to Thailand - not nearly as bad as Africa, but not exactly the US either.

Sure, people can complain, there's such a thing as free speech. But when we look on the positive side, we can start to see more creative, positive, and usually better solutions than just ranting about it.

"Trivial things like a cold coffee is just idiotic" - Upper Class Twit (2012)

PFFFFT, I complain when my coffee gets cold all the time. I paid for that, I deserve to have it have a magical warming technique to it. >;[

I agree with the positive message of your blog and I agree that there is a lot of complaint about insignificant things in the role-playing world. However, there's definitely a clear difference between living a life of poverty in a developing country and not being able to have a sub-account mod or differing understanding in terminology on a role-playing game.

I mean, I lived in the developing world for a chunk of my life and my mum grew up during a civil war in Africa and I still think people should be allowed to complain. While some people get wrapped up in these issues online, I like to think that most of them are aware that it's just a game and aren't comparing the two experiences.

But I just love it when people bring up "starving children in Africa" because there are starving children on other continents, such as Asia (North Korea or India for specific examples) or South America, even in places like North America or Europe but people gloss over them with a "starving children in Africa".

edit: I was writing my response while UCT was posting

"Kindness turns away wrath" and "There's nothing you negative you can't turn into a positive", I liked what you said there. It reminds me of this quote that says, I'm paraphrasing here, that you can change the world around you by your view. If you think positively, everything around you will be positive (and it's the same with negativity though things will become negative). But I also think that from negative happenings, good things happen because you can learn from it.

Trivial things like a cold coffee is just idiotic, tripping and smashing your head is worth whining about though. Everyone has the right to complain. Yes, there's always someone who has it worse than you but sometimes complaining and talking about it can clear your mind.

"It's about life. This could be your very last breath. Why spend it angry?" <-- I agree whole-heartedly with you here. It's why I always try and relax, see the good in things, be nice, etc.

Overall this was a lovely blog =) I liked the second paragraph (even though I do believe in luck to a certain extent). I like that this blog is about how people should stop being negative; however, I would also like to point out that Africa isn't the only place that has starving children - children starve all over the world regardless of country - but I do see the point you're trying to make.

So with that I would like to say to the people who complain about trivial things: Why So Serrrrrriiiioooouuussaaa?