After three days the houseguest starts to smell, but what happens after 10?

At the end of this week I would have been at the in laws for 10 days. That is a long time. I wonder how much of their lives have been turned upside-down because I'm here. I know that when they came to visit us last spring, I felt awkward all the time and didn't really have the urge to be entertaining or anything because I was tired all the time. I don't expect them to be entertaining me all the time here, but I feel like if I don't look happy all the time, they think I'm bored and ready to go home. Even if it's true I guess it's rude to show. Although I was just reading in "Seventeen magazine's etiquette book", circa 1963 (something found on a shelf here), that as a houseguest you should be prepared with your own form of entertainment so as not to make your hosts feel like they need to be with you all of the time. It also says that if go out with a boy, that he should know that "no often means no". Often.
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Poor parents, or poor parenting?

There's nothing I hate more than watching poor parenting in progress. I see it all the time everywhere, and I know that I'm really not one to say anything because I am not a parent myself, but sometimes I think being a good parent partly has to do with having common sense and I think a lot of people don't have even that, which makes them bad parents. I'm not saying they are bad people or even that they shouldn't be parents, I just think that they are doing a bad job at raising their kids and if I want to raise good kids, I would be best to not follow their poor example. <br /><br />For example, kids need sleep. I remember as a kid having to go to sleep as soon as those primetime shows like MacGyver were over, which was at 9pm. And that was when I was like 10 or 12 so I'm sure when I was younger my parents made me go to bed earlier. But not in today's world. Kids have their own rights too. They don't want to go to bed, well they don't have to. You just let them sleep later, like noon or 11 or something. And eating? If kids don't want to eat healthy food, that's ok, you can just go get them a Happy Meal and they'll eat it up. I remember having to ask permission to eat anything outside of meals, and once getting my sister in trouble because she ate AlphaBits cereal without asking and I tattled. And what is with this whole "time out" crap? I hear parents threaten with time out but never following through, and then I hear my niece even goading on her mother, "You're just joking again, aren't you?" I really don't know how kids these days are going to grow up. Maybe they'll all be really great and turn out to be successful happy people and I'll just be known as that crappy aunt who always yelled at them and made their parents want to take them home early because they didn't want their kids to play with me. <br /><br />I just don't think I should be made to feel bad when I hint at the obvious to people, like to not let people's 5 year old kids go bowling at 9 o'clock at night when they should be in bed already. I think sometimes people want to say things but don't because they don't want to be perceived as the bad guy, and I hate that. If someone is wrong and you know it, why not just tell them? It will hurt for like 5 minutes, whereas bad parenting could hurt for a lifetime. Or not. I'm probably wrong, but whatever.
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There's a fine line between rudeness and social ineptitude

We're going to my niece's birthday party today, at Mr. Gatti's, I guess it's the mob's answer to Chuck E. Cheese. I'm not sure if it'll be fun or not, I usually like going to those places because kids pretty much take care of themselves and I just stand around watching them in case they need help, partly to avoid having to sit with the old people and talk. I'm not really a rude person, or at least I don't intend to be, but avoiding talking to other people your age or greater could be interpreted by some as being rude. I guess people don't buy the excuse that some people are just shy and don't feel like socializing, although some may argue that there are miracle drugs to help people overcome that sort of problem. I just don't like talking if I don't have anything good to say, and usually the stuff I do have to say is inappropriate for the more conservative church-going crowd, which is why I choose to be quiet most of the time I'm visiting the in-laws. I'm not being rude, I'm actually preventing rudeness.
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Everyone wants to be important, but are they?

There's nothing that sucks worse than being ignored, right? Being the last kid picked for kickball...being the only person that doesn't get asked to the prom...being that person at work that no one knows what you're doing. But sometimes I think being ignored is way better than having too much attention on you. Although I've learned that most people in this world were probably those losers that were ignored long ago and all they want to do now is to make sure the world knows they are great, even if they aren't. I guess it's great that people are really ambitious and want to do stuff but sometimes I get the feeling that people care more about letting important people know what they're up to rather than accomplishing something really cool.

I've been in way too many stupid work meetings lately. And I've noticed one thing...people talk way too much! People are always talking about themselves. People love "status checkpoints" or "project review meetings" because they love being able to read through a list of all of the things they are doing. I hate meetings like that because it's so obvious to me that those people are just saying those things to make sure the important people (aka the people that can get you a raise or get you promoted) know that you're not just some shmuck that sits around, you actually DO stuff. I think it's safe to say that everyone who works DOES STUFF. The real question is, who really cares? If you're good, people will see it. If you're stupid, people will see that too. So no amount of faking or sucking up or pretending you know stuff will do anything (in my ideal world at least) because stupidity can't be suppressed.

I think I'm just annoyed about this because I get this feeling in the back of my mind that there are stupid people who won't be able to see through to others' stupidity and the suckup-est fakers will be the ones who get all the glory. But I guess that's what I need to figure out...do I want glory, riches, and fame? Or do I want my own satisfaction of knowing that I'm not a fake and that there is more to life than to be held up on a pedestal.