random memes }

Hater

What do you hate?

No. I do not mean dislike. I mean really hate.

To me, hate seems to require a deeper emotion. I do not like rotten bananas. They are a bit disgusting. I throw them away. But dislike is something much less than hate. I do not hate rotten bananas.

My son asked me if I hated George Bush. No, I do not hate George Bush. I hate what he did to the country. But mainly I just wanted him gone. Bush (either one) is a symptom, not the cause. The cause ... dunno. Maybe I hate that. Maybe I just want it to go away.

I tried to think of things that I hate. First to mind - I hate when forced to do a mediocre job. I really really hate that. This is why I hate the bogus requirement for @alt and @summary attributes in HTML (to the non-HTML-techies: nevermind). I know in my work, with others, I have sometimes proved difficult, for exactly this reason.

What else do I hate? I have prejudices - usually carefully chosen. Should I these count as hate? I think not.

I have bad knees, that limit what I can do, and I do hate - really hate that limit. Before and during college I did a lot of long distance cycling. In high school I ran cross-country. Neither were popular activities. Both suited my nature. I am ... stubborn? determined? As a kid I picked the toughest hill I could find, kept attacking periodically, until my ability was greater than the challenge. As a kid, when I started reading "adult" library books at ten years old, they were tough. I had no help or offered encouragement - I just kept at it until my ability increased. Running cross-country, I always chose the run with the biggest hill. Cycling, midway through a double century ride, I made up near all the ground gained by the run-away lead pace group, on a solo climb from valley to mountain (and loved the climb). A few years back I was near strong enough to attempt a one day round trip up Mt. Whitney (yes - of course I would pick the biggest mountain within reach).

I was nearly to ready to attack Whitney, when my knees failed. In the prior couple years I'd worked my way up to making the 4000-odd-foot hike up the local peak several times. I was running the steepest uphills of my local hike ... then my knees failed. For a year I could barely walk. Hiking the local ~7 mile loop is now limited to one or twice a week. Not enough to be a challenge. Cycling is limited in the same way. Too limited to present a challenge, and I lost most of my interest. This I hate.

What else? Dunno. Hard to come up with real-world examples...

What do you hate?