Thoughts on Perspective
"You won't last six months in this town." - Anonymous
If you're sensible, you take an indirect hint from the broke fuckers who spend half their lives wasting away at the blackjack table, pounding back cigarette after drink after sorrow.
"It's always like this," The stranger across the table from me says after yet another losing hand.
I was in the same boat as him, walking away from the cards with 2/3 fewer chips than I started with. Thankfully, the $60 I used to bet with all came from video poker winnings from earlier. No matter what, I told myself, I'm leaving here $20 up.
Greed got the best of me that night. Though ending the night with a profit, it was much less than it could have been. After hitting two four of a kinds on video poker, I had turned my initial $40 into $150 for $110 profit. Half an hour and two more free beers, and that dropped to $60 profit, and I cashed out. It was 4 a.m., and this is when I tried to sleep and couldn't. So I tried my luck at blackjack at 6 in the morning. On a Sunday. Though I lost winnings, I convinced the pit boss to comp me breakfast.
There are two ways to look at this situation I put myself in. Either I could have won more, got greedy and lost, or I simply won $20, free food and drinks, and a night out. All of this seems to relate back to a concept I recently read about called the anchoring effect.
Non-Abusive Partying Brings Out the Best
Friday night was adventure night. It involved wandering around Flagstaff south of the tracks, party hopping with Tekel.
First was Karaoke at Granny's Closet. The DJ has a pedo smile and DSLR camera which he only used to take pictures of the hottest girls (namely the Dutch) singing and dancing to his pirated music, probably for his "website." The bar kicked everyone under 21 out around 12:15 and I never got to sing "Happy Together," by The Turtles. Screw it, we said, and headed back to my car to grab another SoBe before going to the next party.
It was paint shop crew at this one. We arrived as beer pong was ending. No problem - it was BYOB anyway. This apartment was straight out of the 70s, thin wood cabinets and yellow stove included. The party was for a girl who turned 20. At one point I saw her stick her head in the freezer for a good 30 seconds. No picture because I hesitated too much, something I need to change in myself. One of the guys there said, "House parties are cheap. Bars are expensive. And all the bitches ignore you. So I kick them in the crotch." We went to the next party.
This was another birthday party. We met a friend here before karaoke and he invited us to come back later, so we did, but a little too late. The keg was almost empty, and that meant only stragglers were left. It happens that the house was owned by a classmate from last semester. We talked about the summer and what next year would bring. He said he tried NAU Live! before I was there, and he hated being put on the back burner and not having enough creative freedom when working with reporters. I took that into consideration for next year's plans. I also met a girl named Allie who works at the newly opened YMCA as a pre-school coach. She seemed extremely passionate about her line of work, and I offered to participate in a career day for her in exchange for doing a news package on her job.
These were adventures. Parties, when not brothels of sex, drunkenness and drugs, are actually a good thing. So much negative light is shed on large gatherings of people when alcohol is involved. But what I experience at parties is generally networking - meeting new and compelling people, and they're interesting because the alcohol tends to bring out their true personalities.
I find out more about the Dutch culture with every passing day during the Breda workshops. What I've come to discover is everyone is extremely friendly and sociable. They're like those people who ramble on and on but what they're saying is actually interesting to listen to. I believe this has something to do with the way their government handles drugs.
Surprisingly, not many of the students here have claimed to smoke weed. Most of them do drink. But talking about drugs doesn't phase them at all. In fact, they're surprised we Americans are so timid about the matter. One of the students showed me a government-run, taxpayer-funded website and television program that is all about sex and drugs. The concept: Demonstrate and discuss everything about artificial and natural ecstasies to educate the public without condoning or discouraging the use of either. Spuiten & Slikken (NSFW) is that program and, again, it's run by the Dutch government.
This openness the government has with its citizens reflects in their social behavior. So few of the students are closed and confine themselves. Every day is a social event in the dorm. I leave my door open and have people drop in all the time to chat about what's happening. They're not inward cowards like many Americans can be.
I truly think this method of education instead of insulation is more beneficial to society as a whole. Such insulation has led to laws regarding even drinking in public. I ran into that law Friday night when a Police officer quickly shined his light on us because I was carrying a SoBe bottle, temporarily blinding me and Tekel before we crossed the street. It was just SoBe, so of course he didn't pull us over. But what if he had? Oh no, drinking alcohol outside is going to kill puppies and kittens and endanger the well-being of our children!
Let's take a look at what the Dutch are doing with their drug policies. Having open marijuana and alcohol policies doesn't in any way turn everyone into an addict. Few in this group smoke tobacco, much less weed, and, although most of them drink, they don't become belligerent when they do.