emo gases

i didn't think i'd ever be explaining shoegazing to my students, but there i was doing it today. i was introducing students to the different groups in the periodic table (alkalis, alkaline earth metals, halogens, noble gases) and was explaining how stable noble gases are because they have full valence shells. so full, in fact, that they have no motivation to hang out with any other elements because they are quite content with the electrons they have. i then heard one of my students say "oh, so they're like emo then." holy. cow. yes... yes noble gases are totally emo. i think my response was something like "well, it's not like they listen to death cab for cutie or anything, but yes, you could think of them as emo. or shoegazers." my students had no idea what that meant, so of course i demonstrated and they laughed like maniacs. cus shoegazing is ridiculous. and then ol' jermone asked whether opening fire at an emo concert would be the best thing for a serial killer to do. because all the emo kids would be staring at their shoes and not paying attention to what's going on. how do you answer that? i told him to not start getting ideas and finish coloring in his alkali metals.

shoegazing electron hogs.