Keep an eye on your youth.

I had the weirdest train of thought today that started somewhere around here in this blog, and then noodled over to Tumblr, which has made a lot more sense to me lately, and that reminded me of Xanga, which reminded me of the blog I had on Xanga during high school and is still floating somewhere around the internet. Somehow, I remembered all my old screen name/password information, and spent the morning rereading my high school life. Which was horrifying, unsurprisingly. Before there was Facebook, and even Myspace, there was Xanga for me and my group of friends. I can't believe we found so much entertainment in blogging the minutiae of our totally lame day-to-day lives.

Anyway, when I got to May 2006, I found this post where I lamented various destructions of archaeological or historical sites by suggesting really nasty ways for the perpetrators to die. I included hyperlinks to this story about American soldiers ruining Babylon, a link to the organization trying to save the Hill of Tara from having a highway run through it (now defunct), and a link that no longer exists but that I remember was about this Spanish mayor who paved over an ancient Roman town before archaeologists could come in to look at it. A lot of the punishment involved really grisly medieval-style deaths and being forced to listen to Celine Dion. I had no idea I'd begun so early in speaking out against historical injustice on the internet, but I'm really glad that account is set to private because I was surprisingly and unnecessarily graphic. Like, I'm horrified by this post now kind of graphic. Was I really that angry as an adolescent? The details I suggested in how these people should suffer strikes me now as pretty offensive. I'm surprised my mom didn't say something. The only thing that didn't totally put me off of my pubescent self was when I summed it all up with, "Archaeological injustice makes me want to cry and do something!!! Don't be a ninny! Save the Things of Historical Significance!" I think the last part suggests I'd been reading too much A.A. Milne, but overall I'm touched by the emotion and feel slightly eerie about it now that I am trying to Do Something. I'm just glad I dealt with my anger issues first? All you parents with historically/archaeologically-inclined children, make sure they aren't also using the internet to list the ways people should suffer for harming/destroying the things your children care about. Apparently, it is a real concern.