Jenny was a friend of mine

In case you couldn't tell, that last post was a completely bullshitted story. But I think it illustrated the point I was trying to make.

In the past week I've received a fair bit of feedback about a post I made half-drunkenly on St. Patty's Day. To be honest, I was a bit taken aback with the first comment that D left (which lead to a number of people telling me their opinions of her arguments). But I'm glad that D responded to that mystery commenter, and cleared up the meaning of what she had written.

The previous post to this is pretty self-explanatory, but the thing I wanted to comment on was the second argument brought up by D about portraying people in a bad way.

First of all, if you've ever been out drinking with me, you likely know that I get brutally drunk on most occasions. Most days I'd be the one that needs to be taken home, but I usually seem to find my own way (mainly because I spontaneously run out of the bar alone). And I do appreciate it when others take me home if I'm too drunk to make it on my own.

But if someone told people about my drunken antics, I don't think it's fair to be mad at that person for telling others. Whenever we go out drinking we know exactly what we're doing. Most of us (guys anyway) want to get hammered and have fun, and maybe even do something stupid once we leave the bar... i.e. stealing parking meters.

I find it interesting that I got no comments about portraying James and Steve as drunken thieves acting like monkeys bashing at that parking meter. But I did get criticism for saying Katie was too drunk for her own good, implying that she was a "drunken, helpless fool". Personally I'd say that posting about drunken criminal actions is a little worse than just drunken actions. For the record, I'm gonna do my best to avoid talking about crimes from now on. haha.

The main point is that we're all responsible for our own actions. And when we do get drunk beyond the level we should, is it really fair to criticize the people who tell it as it happened? A friend of mine, the former "Sober Sutton" (he drinks now), used to relay the stories that the drunks were never able to remember on their own. And I don't ever remember anyone getting mad at him for telling the truth about all the drunks that he had to baby-sit.

That said, I'm obviously not going to write lies about anyone, particularly my friends. And I'd never write anything personal or damaging to someone's reputation or anything like that. When you go out and get hammered, odds are alot of your friends are going to see you anyway, so putting those memories into print doesn't change much. It's just something to look back on and say, "what the fuck was I thinking?"

After all, if we don't learn from our mistakes and regrets, what will we learn from? Maybe we all need to consider the fact that anyone might say anything about us, so we need to be more responsible for what actions we do take when we go out boozing.

My intent with this blog is certainly not to make enemies out of friends, and I'm not trying to force my own opinions on anyone else. I'm just gonna say what I say, and if anyone ever has something to say about what I write, feel free to comment. It's easy as hell to remove a post, but don't forget that it's just as easy to get rid of comments, so keep it tasteful.