So. I've been hanging out with the Communists more often these days.

The Communists are some friends of mine. Used to be roomates for a while, back in the day. Of course, things went down poorly at one point, and I had to bail to further my career, and left them behind.

They didn't hold it against me, though.

Time went on, the Communist clatch grew in size. There were, I think, five people in the original commune.

Now there are six. And they have some communal friends.

One of them is a certain Major.

I call him Mr. Major because I don't think he's a person I like enough to call by his first name.

Now, this guy, for reasons I don't know, has never liked me. The FIRST time I met him was when I had just gotten the first volume of Excel Saga on DVD, and was still living with the communists. I was the major lease-holder of the house. The television in the living room was mine.

Walker (one of the communists) had told me that he was inviting a friend over. Walker was not actually a tenant at that point, and was actually only a guest.

I said this was okay, and then Mr. Major and two other people came in. Major saw that I was watching something animated, said something derogatory about anime in general, and then (keep in mind, I was the one who was paying rent here) told me to get off the TV so he could show Walker (a guest) the SpaceBalls movie.

I was in a bad mood with A: more people that should have been there in the room, and B: him being an asshole.

But I moved aside, cranked my headphones to maximum volume, and listened to AMVs.

Now, as I visit the communists more often these days, I also (obviously) run into Mr. Major more often. And he seems to harbor some resentment against me.

He seems to think I'm a bad person, and just generally try and say clever things about how stupid I am behind my back. I say things about how stupid he is to his face, but they all go over his head. He assumes (correctly) that I'm saying something bad about him, and to his face, but has no idea WHAT I said.

So he just gets all huffy.

But today. I decided to drop in on the communists to hang out with Sterling, because we were going to discuss gaming (which we did a bit) and Mr. Major made noises about joining our Demon: the Fallen campaign.

I didn't really care.

So, we were getting hungry. I asked Jim (Communist) what he thought about dinner, and he said he had to go to Fry's to get something for Mr. Major (for some reason). My younger brother was with me, so I said, "Let's all go to Fry's, then."

Major doesn't like this (for some reason) but we all go. Me and my brother in his car.

While we're there, Jim bemoans his lack of funds, seeing as there's a CPU on sale he could use to bring his dead PC back to life, but he's short about ten dollars the cost of it.

So I say something like, "Well, it's your birthday next month, and I won't have the money then. So, happy birthday." And I buy it for him.

(Aside: When the cashier asked me if I wanted a bag for the processor, I answered, "No thanks, we'll eat it in the car.")

(She didn't notice.)

So, we split up there. Me and my brother to get food, and I asked Jim if he could do me a favor and pick up the drinks. We get back to the townhouse, lay out the food, Jim and Major come home with the drinks, and we all have a merry feast.

Except for Mr. Major.

Who makes a big deal out of asking me for permission for taking food.

Now, I do this thing once a month (or so) where I get some food for everyone in the Communist Block, we eat together, talk about gaming, and I make comments about their worship of me sustaining my god-like powers.

A good time is had by all.

Usually (since he hangs out there a lot) Major is there, too.

Not ONCE have I said he couldn't eat.

But he always asks.

And then, after he eats, he's still rude to me.

He lacks respect, is what it is.

And I would get annoyed, yeah, but wouldn't mind THAT much if he disrespected me.

But.

He disrespects my FRIENDS.

He goes over, and kicks these people off of their own TV so he can play his game.

He goes over, and drags Jim over to a GameStop, just so that he can take advantage of Jim's employee discount.

He openly disrespects EVERYONE in the townhouse. To their faces.

And today, he made some openly snide comment about me to my face.

And I thought about it for a while.

And I decided to leave.

Because, hey, I don't want to just explode and pick a fist-fight with him on the spot. I want to step back and consider, and try to understand why I think he's such a bad person.

And now I pretty much have.

So, the next time I see him, I'll tell him ... "If you have something to say to me, say it to my face. If you're too much of a coward to say something to me, but brave enough to take food I bring for my friends, I think you're going to be better off not showing your face around me." And now.

This is why I hated psychology in college. It allows me SO EASILY to take someone apart and understand how they work. And consider them less people, and more just an assemply of complexes and disorders.

So. I show Major the same respect that he shows everyone else.

Which is none.

Guy pisses me off.

And, I've decided (after considering my piss-poor excuse for a manager at Televigation) that I'm not going to take this anymore.

Obviously, I need to be careful about how I approach this -- I don't need (or want) to pick a fight with everyone I see. But at the same time, the only way this guy is ever going to grow up is if someone gives him a verbal kick in the pants, and opens up his eyes enough to show him that the world is a hell of a lot bigger than him.

Ironically, I hurt because I care. There are two possible outcomes to my confrontation with him. In one of them, he resents me, and fails to grow. In another, he grows, and probably still doesn't like me, but hey, at least he's grown, and most likely I don't have to deal with him anymore.