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So, I have to catch two buses in order to reach ASDA, which, if you didn't know already, is a British supermarket chain that sells foods, clothes, magazines, and miscellaneous paraphernalia. I need to go there because the stuff that they sell in the university supermarket is overpriced, and there isn't as much of a variety on campus. The ASDA in Canterbury is big, and they do a lot of good deals, the choices you have to pick from is great.
Basically, I was waiting for the second bus that takes me to ASDA. It came eventually, and I stepped on board. As the bottom deck of the double-decker bus was crowded, I decided to go upstairs.
Sitting in the front of the second storey of the bus, were these five chavs and chevettes - for all of you unfamiliar with those terms, a stereotypical chav is a British-made derogatory term for a young adult who often engages in rambunctious public behavior, and have little-to-no money and education under their name. A chevette is the female form of chav.
The first thing they did, was say, "It's Jackie Chan walking up the stairs."
...No.
One of these stuck-up morons was eating a packet of fries. For what seemed like no good reason at all, she would put one fry in her mouth, then take an alternate one and throw it down the stairs. To me, it seemed like she found it amusing in her own mind. But she wasn't laughing out loud, though, so maybe it was just 'cause she was bored?
She would eat consume one, then throw one on the floor, at the front window, or down the stairs. I watched as her friends didn't seem to give a damn about her littering. One of those friends was actually too busy sticking up the middle finger at random bystanders on the streets and in the windows of some buildings. I was trying to read a book, but this was simply too fascinating to me. I certainly don't think that all English people act this way, I've observed a few lunatic kids back in Hong Kong - but they were definitely some interesting specimens.
The girl with the fries started getting a bit full, I suppose, so she stopped alternating her ingestion and her disposal of fries, and instead, just stuck with throwing them down the stairs.
Maybe her arm got tired?
Because then she just threw the whole packet, still half-full of french fries, down the stairway.
To which my response is, "wow".
You might be wondering what I could possibly have against throwing something in the bin. Perhaps Michael's gone cuckoo and wants people to throw rubbish on the floor or out the window instead.
No, no, I'm not crazy. (Well, maybe I am. Let's see.) I think that the actual throwing of trash is annoying. Whether the trash enters the bin or not, it really boggles my mind how lazy people can be, lazy to the point where they don't want to travel to the bin to place it in. And if it's not for convenience, it's often for amusement. To see if the rubbish will actually get in the bin is such a petty, unsubstantial, superficial thing to be excited by. Damn it, it's just throwing away the trash!
I also have this slight irritation concerning noise. Whether you manage to project your litter into the trash can or not, it creates a sound. If it lands in, the sound emitted can range from a swish as it brushes along the plastic bag, to a thud thud-thud if it's plasticless, to perhaps a metallic ting if two aluminum cans come into contact for example, to a really disruptive cling clang if you shatter a glass bottle. That's if you get it in. You see, when you miss, there's a greater number of things that usually go wrong.
First, the trash lands on the floor when you miss. That is, in essence, quite stupid. You effectively send something through the air only to litter and not actually dispose of it. Then comes all the bother of going over there to pick up the trash off the ground, which sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it, if you're doing it out of laziness?
Second, the action of lobbing it in the bin often requires a lot of movement and that makes it distracting, and as I have said in some post before, I hate it when people can't stay still. I believe in subtlety a lot. You see, when there's a bin in a given room, they're likely to be near the door or beside the desk. If it's outdoors, they'll be on the side of the pavement or the corridor or beside the benches. Whatever. The point is: bins are everywhere. If I have rubbish to throw in the bin, I will carefully plan out my steps to come, so I can skilfully pass by the bin and drop my rubbish inside without using much movement. You conserve energy. You conserve the energy required in the case where you miss the bin and have to go over and pick it up. It doesn't draw attention to yourself. The rubbish is bound to end up in the trash. And you feel good! I swear, the cleverly planned out route past the bin will give you a sense of satisfaction that exceeds 'the good feeling' you get from five beautiful slam dunks. Subtlety is the best!
Third and last of all, if you miss, your aim sucks. Even the best pros in the NBA have stats that say that they actually manage to score points for their free throws and three pointers less than 0.6% of the time. (Was it just me or was the phrase "for their free throws and three pointers" a real mouthful?)
Who are you to believe in your ability to send trash through the air into a bin? I mean, if you're doing it out of amusement, most certainly, you're one to go pick it up off the ground, return to your original position (or even go back a further distance) and retry your shot. In my opinion, the more times one misses, the greater the magnitude of stupidity that is on display...
Come on. Don't throw things in the bin! (Am I crazy?)