J.H. Forge

I note that my mini-fridge is devoid of Red Bull. Dammit, Lex!

Now I have to drive into town and it's very bright outside. And hot too. Lex, if you're going to keep screwing with the weather, we may need to have words.

An Italian is winning the Tour de France. Complaints may be directed to Lex.


(I like Blame The New Guy Week. We should make it a tradition!)

Woo hoo! Free food! If this is what happens when I come back from a mission without serious injury, I should make it happen more often.

While not every adult using this journal system is part of the educational staff, I felt a few recent comments deserved looking over.

First, assume you came across a message with this basic content:

Mutants are scum. Every one of them. We don't need them, and the moment one steps out of line we have every right to visit physical violence and assault on them, and be applauded for it. After all, just because a few are bad, that's obviously reflective of the whole.

Most of you - being reasonably rational and intelligent people - would dismiss this as a raving lunatic racist, akin to your average Friends of Humanity protestor or internet troll.

But replace the term "Mutants" with "Humans". Imagine someone - let's say someone on this journal system - was espousing hatred and violence towards humans. After all, there's a lot of them out there who hate us, right? And they discriminate against us in ways both obvious and subtle. So that must mean it's okay to hate all of them, right?

Wrong.

It's wrong, and every single one of us with a functioning brain stem knows it.

Further distillation: replace the subject with, say, "Men".

Oh, then it becomes a valid complaint? Something to be ignored or waved off? No. It's bigotry and hatred all the same. There's a line between valid emotional venting and outright hate speech, and lately it's not only been crossed, but crossed in a manner akin to the Germany/Belgium border in 1914.

To the students: A lot of you have had direct interaction with jerks, and discrimination, and abuse, and hatred. But you haven't turned around and become that kind of hate-fueled monster yourself. That kind of self-control and enlightenment is to be commended. For whatever stumbling blocks you all might encounter as individuals, none of you have become the kind of reactive bigots that give humanity a reason to hate and fear mutants.

To Jennie: You, however, have achieved EPIC FAIL at common decency and rational thought. Maybe the common denominator in all your failed relationships is you.

Currently, I am bored.

Well, and hungry because I have seemed to set my lunch on fire. But aside from the primitive needs of a biological digestive system, I am bored.

For the first time in months, I have no experiments or projects on the drawing board, the security system has been given its weekly firmware update and full diagnostic, the Blackbird's maintenance is green across the board, I've updated the Danger Room's processing array, and topped off the fluids on every vehicle in the garage.

For the love of God, someone challenge me with something before I'm forced to build a catapult that can launch Kyle into the Kuiper Belt.

Here's a quick primer on how to tell if you're an idiot.

1) Have you been issued a cell phone by the Xavier Institute? If you're a resident here, the answer is yes.

2) Does said cell phone possess an embedded GPS tracker and one-touch panic button system directly linked in real-time to security alert systems here at the Institute? If you answered yes to question 1, then this is automatically a yes as well.

3) Do you keep this phone with you when you leave the Institute? If the answer is no, then you are a complete and total moron. An idiot of the highest order. A failure of Darwinian proportions, the equivalent of the three-legged zebra out on the Serengeti who decides to go on her own to the lions' watering hole wearing a sign saying "Maul me, I'm tender!"

Let's take the events of the last twenty-four hours. On the one hand, you have Miss Monet St. Croix. Fantastically vapid bimbo that she may be, she not only informed people of where she was headed (although her tact and discretion leave much to be desired, not to mention any sense of class or dignity), she took her phone with her. Keep in mind that Monet is for all intents and purposes invulnerable and strong as an ox, she was responsible.

Then you have Miss Karolina Dean. Miss Dean is sixteen years old and possessed of the survival instinct of your basic lemming. For those of you who haven't met her, which might be a lot given that she tends to skip out on many of the mandatory classes and events here designed to teach you how to protect yourself, Karolina's mutant power is basically to be a human glowstick. She can fly, which only makes her a moving glowy target should someone want to take a shot at her, which given that she has very rich and famous parents isn't out of the question even were she not one of the most visible mutants here.

Let's discuss further why Karolina's a clueless imbecile who's lucky to still be alive. Shortly before the fracas in Manhattan a few weeks ago, she was grounded for refusing to participate in a mandatory training session. Despite this, she snuck out and found herself in the middle of the chaos with no supervision, no training, and basically no clue. Her peers acquitted themselves admirably because they cooperated and acted as a team. Karolina apparently doesn't value her peers enough to accept this.

Last night, Karolina took off again, this time intentionally leaving behind her Institute-issued cell phone with the aforementioned GPS locator and panic button. She didn't inform the staff where she was going, despite having multiple opportunities. While to my knowledge no incident occurred, the potential was there.

Last night, Manuel also raised the point about how students here are being trained to respond to danger situations. I will counter that point with the aforementioned incident in Manhattan where the majority of the New Mutants training group managed not only to survive for four days without any resources aside from the training this Institute provided, but actually managed to act as a team and subdue a violent mutant terrorist.

I'm not advocating the mindset that everyone must be trained for combat. Some people here are barely as effective as your average flatscan human - others even less so should danger arise. What I am advocating is less of you being a complete fucking idiot and taking advantage of the resources that are being made available to you.

If you think that you need to learn how to better protect yourself - people here will train you to the best of their ability. And frankly, if any of you know a better place to be trained in the use of your mutant powers, and you feel the Institute's programs are insufficient - the big double doors in the front foyer lead to the outside world.

If you feel that you do not need to learn how to protect yourself, if somehow your own personal views of pacifism are more important than not only your own safety, but that of others around you - there are those doors. You're not only a liability to yourself, but you're a detriment to those around you. Please, leave. Become a statistic, perhaps as a victim you'll at least serve the purpose of being an object lesson to others.

Is there any way to promise perfect safety? No. And if this surprises you, you're an idiot. If you want to try and take the staff of this Institute to task and think they should be doing more, by all means - every staff member from the Professor down to myself has an open-door policy. Just don't come in empty-handed. If you think there's a problem, use that hopefully greater-than-mediocre mutant brain of yours and suggest a solution.

For those of you who have been following policy, being responsible, and generally not bringing me closer to that inevitable aneurism that spoiled little brats such as Miss Dean seem bound to inflict -- thank you, and rest assured that we appreciate all your patience and support.

Will be at Harry's.

Have my phone in case of emergencies.

Here's to failed experiments.

Notes as of late.

1) It totally isn't fair that my girlfriend started college a year after me and is about to graduate. Stupid ESU not recognizing work credit from Attilan.

2) 66% of my former suitemates now attend my chosen purveyor of secondary education. Marius, Kyle - I've got to be on campus all day tomorrow, you guys want to catch a ride? Kyle, I know you've got your bike but I also saw your freshman book list.

3) One week off of the damn cane! A winner is me!

4) Yes, Cats. I will bring back pastrami from the off-campus deli.

There is not enough Red Bull in the world to wash out the taste of those... whatever they were. Purple toroidal cakes of death. I feel vaguely unclean. When I discover who left those out with the "Help Yourself" sign? Oh, yes. There will be retribution.

As Scott has already announced, the security lockdown is done and everyone dealt with the minor crisis well, and for that I thank you. It makes my job much easier.

To assuage people's doubts and concerns, I believe that informational transparency is the best course in this situation. The other day, five people were abducted from the premises by an individual whose abilities lay outside the scope of currently known technology. This should not be construed as an inability of this Institute or the staff within to fulfill their duties of protecting those of you who are in their charge.

I'll be frank here - as much of a genius as I am, I am not a precognitive. I cannot predict every single possibility that exists concerning threats to people's safety. There is no such thing as an impregnable sanctuary, and if someone has given you that impression, I feel the need to disabuse you of that incorrect notion. The concept of a safe haven is one that has to be balanced with having a livable place for residents to work and learn. This is neither a fortress nor a prison.

As many of you, and I include myself in this number, have unfortunately learned - there are those who will seek to harm us, disenfranchise us, and use us to their own ends, simply because of who and what we are and the things we can do. To some people, we represent a change that they fear. To others, we are a threat to their world view simply by our existence. To others, we are a potential tool to their own ends.

There are threats out there, many that we know about and inevitably, many that we do not. Anyone who wishes to know more about them, I will be happy to share any information that I am able to.

...by the fact that "Spring Break" is occurring in winter? I can't even properly set up my island kingdom out on the lake because it's frickin' cold outside.

That being said, with most of our inhabitants off playing Manual Labor on the west coast, I am declaring this week as an homage to epic British heavy metal, and will be playing Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time in its entirety as today's workday melodic accompaniment.

For those who wish to rock, a laser light performance will be taking place in Boiler Beach... whenever I get around to it.