This is already turning out to be a bad day, but as I walked from class to class today, I've been passively listening to people talk. This has almost instantly sent me over the edge. Between a girl voicing her opinion as to why she would vote for Gingrich as a republican candidate & my communications professor scribbling an insane amount of criticism of a speech outline without a) going over exactly what her expectations were in class or b) being able to grade every one's stuff objectively; I am at my capacity for people's shit today. Where to start?
Well, right now I'm sitting outside my next class waiting for time to start and the professor in the classroom next to it has her door open and is lecturing on social media. I have no clue what type of class this is, but its in the Business building so I can assume two things: 1) It is some type of business class. 2) She has no idea that her students likely know 10 times more about Social media than she does. She has just explained Twitter and Pinterest back to back in the absolutely most basic terms possible. She also stated that Twitter was a very useful tool for most people to give you very important information. Has she ever read a Twitter feed? I'm sure there may be some deep, dark, nerd circle out there, where people are tweeting about global economic policy or some other stuff that no one on Twitter really cares about. When I think of Twitter, I think of journalism and the ability to send the headlines of upcoming stories out before they are released. The more well-known area of Twitter would be where people follow Kardashians and other reality TV stars and attempt to interact with them and get a retweet because they live a life where a celebrity hitting a button or two to reply to their message makes the year for them. That and they wanna know the secret to their success. (Hint: it was banging the singer Brandi's unfamous brother on camera. I have a complete other post I want to write on the state of our nation where this allows you to make $20 million for a 72 day sham of a marriage (Also, we accept this as some type of acceptable behavior, but freak the fuck out because two men or two women want to marry each other?))
I digress. The second instance of anger came as I received an outline back, which was tore to shreds on what I missed or did incorrectly. There were many comments, but the professor gave me no reasoning as to how she takes points off for each infraction. She basically writes a bunch of chicken scratch on your work, gives you a grade, and when you compare it with others in the class, there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why she gave the grade she did. I cannot explain how pissed I was (and still am) this morning when i got my work back. I understand that it is normal for certain professors to be more strict than others and that certain types of classes are routinely tougher. This is a public speaking class. Every communications class I've ever known about has been one of the easier classes where information and material are concerned. Chemistry or Physics it is not. That being said, I can understand someone setting the bar higher than expected. What I cannot understand, nor accept is for a professor to grade two papers or pieces of work with different grades and similar critiques. It may not be completely tangible like grading a math test, but I HATE (and I cannot stress this word enough) when someone cannot justify their reasoning as to why you were given the response you received. The professor could provide a rough rubric of how you will be evaluated, they just chose not to. Instead, the class is spent covering power point slides that could easily be consumed outside of class in less time and more time devoted to covering, giving examples of, or basically teaching the technique being graded. I didn't decide to incur $3,000 in debt this semester so that I could have a professor show me PowerPoint slides that have little effect on what my money is going towards...a degree.
The final straw this morning was a spritely young coed, who as I walked out with my 2nd coffee this morning, felt compelled to voice her political opinions to everyone within a 20 foot radius. It's understood that they are in fact opinions and thusly don't require extensive knowledge of the concepts or ideas described therein. I also, don't have expectations any longer when it comes to anyone under the age of 25 being able to voice their opinions based on factual evidence, sound reasoning, or life experience. They're young and it makes sense that some of those requirements would be difficult to come by. All I ask is that if you are speaking loudly about someone who could potentially be the leader of the free world, you don't use terms like, "I think Gingrich would get my vote because of like...you know...he totally has..." If you can't fully express what you want to say without sounding like a Valley girl, please by all means, take some extra time, compose yourself, and contemplate your feelings on the subject. Also, don't vote for Gingrich. That's just silly...
Yes, I realize the irony in this upcoming statement (hey, you guys all click on a link because you care what I have to say), but far too often we assume that others give a damn what we think. We assume that our opinion or viewpoint is the benchmark by which all others should be considered. I'm far too tired to understand where stupid ideas come from or where the urge to speak without thinking about what you're saying comes from. Then again, maybe that's why I'm tired, I've been worn down against the dull grindstone that is stupidity and ego-centrism...
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Live Blog of the Grammy's
So, I've been watching the Grammy's pre-show and I decided to do a live blog of it for awhile. Doubt I'll do the entire thing, but anyways... I'll post a quick recap for what Ive watched up until this point.
Here we go:
7:47 - Foo Fighters = Awesome. The fact that a fan in the audience was wearing his sunglasses on the back of his head and an affliction button up shirt appreciates the same music, makes me question the majority of my decisions.
8:00 - Coldplay was pitchy. And it looked like someone covered Chris Martin's piano in a "technicolor money-shot"
8:09 - The Chipotle commercial has me confused with Willie Nelson singing Coldplay's "The Scientist". It still doesn't make me want to eat Chipotle, but it was definitely memorable.
8:15 - Gotta love the Foo Fighters getting all of this recognition.
8:16 - Beach Boys being done by Maroon 5 & Foster the People seemed like they managed to almost put me to sleep. I'm also wondering if Brian Wilson will want go back into his bedroom and do cocaine for another 2 years after seeing what "artists" like Minaj and GaGa have done with music.
8:32 - Stevie Wonder really needs to let go of the hair. It's gone completely on top. I don't understand why he can't see that...
8:34 - No Sir McCartney, no one wants to hear you jazz standard rendition. Play Yesterday, Hey Jude, or basically anything else besides what you're doing now.
8:38 - I'm glad that chris Brown thanked everyone except Rihanna for not pressing charges...
8:48 - Taylor Swift.... Ugh. For those of you who don't know her backstory, the way I have heard it is this: She's from a rich suburb of Nashville, her dad paid for everything and even bought a bunch of her singles on iTunes when she first released so that it would end up being on the top buys list. She was well-liked in high school. Basically, at no point has anyone likely been mean to her in her life. If she and Chad Kroeger from Nickelback had a child, it would undoubted be able to write such shitty pop songs that it would bring about an apocalyptic event like this.
8:59 - Lady Antebellum kills me. Just blah.
9:05 - They just introduced Gwyneth Paltrow as the only Oscar winner to perform with Cee Lo at last year's Grammys. That wins my award for most stunningly specific introduction tidbit.
9:14 - Adele is 23. I have this weird feeling that she's great enough that we'll lose her to the club of 27. (For those that don't know, thats the club of stars that all died at 27. Cobain, Hendrix, Joplin, etc.)
9:19 - Its sad that Glenn Campbell has Alzheimer's and is stopping touring, but every time they show him I can't help, but to think of this
9:32 - Tony Bennett looks like he wants to give Carrie Underwood the best 10-20 seconds oh her life.
9:34 - Bon Iver is pronounced like Eye ver. Didn't realize it was that bad. Also, his acceptance speech confirmed exactly why the hipsters love him so...
9:51 - I just want Questlove to be by friend.
9:56 - There is a weird bit of irony that Dave Grohl was sandwiched between two electronic artists and Chris Brown after his rant on the acceptance speech.
10:00 - That guy had a cool mouse helmet. I have no idea why he wears it, but it was shiny.
10:05 - Nicki Minaj...just....I don't know how I'm supposed to... Geez. What the fuck was that?
Thats it. I cant comprehend anything else. My brain just felt like someone hit it with a taser. Nicki Minaj has ruined my ability to be interested in music. She also managed to alienate anyone with even a slight amount of respect for the Christian religion.
- Nicki Minaj must intend on surviving financially despite any Catholic never buying her records again
- I'm more and more saddened by the effect reality tv has had on the world. I don't know that it is the only thing that I can pinpoint, but it does make me wonder if everyone competed for attention like this before it came along. Nothing would make me happier than GaGa and Minaj calling a truce. Especially since some Russian wore machine guns on her right arm. I'll just let that last sentence sink in for a minute.
- I don't understand it. Susan loves to watch E!'s coverage of the red carpet. I feel like after an hour of it, that they almost exclusively talked to people who either had a show on their network or asked questions to turn it that way. People say that Seacrest is the next Dick Clark. Dick Clark gave us glorious things like $25,000 Pyramid and American Bandstand. Seacrest gets rich off things like the Kardashians. Remember that. They're his fault...
Here we go:
7:47 - Foo Fighters = Awesome. The fact that a fan in the audience was wearing his sunglasses on the back of his head and an affliction button up shirt appreciates the same music, makes me question the majority of my decisions.
8:00 - Coldplay was pitchy. And it looked like someone covered Chris Martin's piano in a "technicolor money-shot"
8:09 - The Chipotle commercial has me confused with Willie Nelson singing Coldplay's "The Scientist". It still doesn't make me want to eat Chipotle, but it was definitely memorable.
8:15 - Gotta love the Foo Fighters getting all of this recognition.
8:16 - Beach Boys being done by Maroon 5 & Foster the People seemed like they managed to almost put me to sleep. I'm also wondering if Brian Wilson will want go back into his bedroom and do cocaine for another 2 years after seeing what "artists" like Minaj and GaGa have done with music.
8:32 - Stevie Wonder really needs to let go of the hair. It's gone completely on top. I don't understand why he can't see that...
8:34 - No Sir McCartney, no one wants to hear you jazz standard rendition. Play Yesterday, Hey Jude, or basically anything else besides what you're doing now.
8:38 - I'm glad that chris Brown thanked everyone except Rihanna for not pressing charges...
8:48 - Taylor Swift.... Ugh. For those of you who don't know her backstory, the way I have heard it is this: She's from a rich suburb of Nashville, her dad paid for everything and even bought a bunch of her singles on iTunes when she first released so that it would end up being on the top buys list. She was well-liked in high school. Basically, at no point has anyone likely been mean to her in her life. If she and Chad Kroeger from Nickelback had a child, it would undoubted be able to write such shitty pop songs that it would bring about an apocalyptic event like this.
8:59 - Lady Antebellum kills me. Just blah.
9:05 - They just introduced Gwyneth Paltrow as the only Oscar winner to perform with Cee Lo at last year's Grammys. That wins my award for most stunningly specific introduction tidbit.
9:14 - Adele is 23. I have this weird feeling that she's great enough that we'll lose her to the club of 27. (For those that don't know, thats the club of stars that all died at 27. Cobain, Hendrix, Joplin, etc.)
9:19 - Its sad that Glenn Campbell has Alzheimer's and is stopping touring, but every time they show him I can't help, but to think of this
9:32 - Tony Bennett looks like he wants to give Carrie Underwood the best 10-20 seconds oh her life.
9:34 - Bon Iver is pronounced like Eye ver. Didn't realize it was that bad. Also, his acceptance speech confirmed exactly why the hipsters love him so...
9:51 - I just want Questlove to be by friend.
9:56 - There is a weird bit of irony that Dave Grohl was sandwiched between two electronic artists and Chris Brown after his rant on the acceptance speech.
10:00 - That guy had a cool mouse helmet. I have no idea why he wears it, but it was shiny.
10:05 - Nicki Minaj...just....I don't know how I'm supposed to... Geez. What the fuck was that?
Thats it. I cant comprehend anything else. My brain just felt like someone hit it with a taser. Nicki Minaj has ruined my ability to be interested in music. She also managed to alienate anyone with even a slight amount of respect for the Christian religion.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Seriously guys is this the Truman Show?
After seeing the Truman Show, I've always thought that it truly was an interesting concept. What if your life was one big lie (or not necessarily a lie, but you know...whatever...you get my point). Ok, so you probably didn't get my point, but it is basically this. Does anyone else feel like there is a good portion of their life that could be another "Candid Camera" episode?
As a way of proving this theory, I've started recounting the things that I've witnessed in the last year or so. Since no one has emailed me at chemosabe23 at gmail dot com (sorry had to write it out because while Spam may be a delicious canned meat to some, I prefer not to deal with it) with funny videos or links for me to look at and then make fun of, I've just decided that for the time being, I'll recount something each week or so that you all can then let me know whether its insane to think that it is weird that shit keeps happening when I'm around.
So if we are facebook friends (you. are. welcome. btw.) you likely noticed my post earlier about the blind girl. Whether you did or didn't, I'll gladly recount this story so that you all may feel the awkwardness that I felt when this happened. This semester I have a History class at 6:20am. Yes, I realize how stupid that sentence is. To be honest, I don't mind it that much because it enables you to have a good portion of your day going before anyone gets to campus. Anyways, this morning we had our first exam and thus, I was finished at roughly 7am and had an hour before my next class. The student center was on the way to my next class, and I knew that no normal (read: annoying) college student would be around, so I thought it was a good way to kill an hour, plus chik-fil-a is there, and unless you're a communist, who doesn't enjoy a good chicken biscuit? The answer is Kim Jong Il. He doesn't enjoy a chicken biscuit because he's dead. He's also a communist. Really not sure which reason supersedes the other on why he doesn't like chicken biscuits.
I'm sitting in the booth enjoying the first chicken biscuit that was sold on MTSU's campus this morning (yes, I'm proud) and I see this girl coming towards me. I immediately note some distinct differences. A) She is walking with a huge cane/walking stick... which leads me to B) She is blind.
Let me stop here to let you grasp the fact, that at no point do I intend to poke fun at her condition, or the daily trials that she likely deals with. The following is merely an observation on what else I noticed about her and the events thereafter. No more. No less.
Once she gets closer, I notice that she has a giant eyebrow ring above her right eye. Call me an asshole, but if you aren't magically still living in any year before 2005, then you have no business with a piercing in your eyebrow. Regardless of anything else, you just shouldn't do it. Compound the fact that, I assume she has never seen what this thing looks like and you can understand how I thought this was awkward. It was more awkward because I felt bad for judging her even though it was a trivial brow accoutrement. I was fixated on developing any back story that seemed remotely feasible to explain why a blind girl would pierce her eyebrow. I had nothing. Keep in mind that as I'm distracted by her life's story, she is walking through the middle of the student center sweeping her cane in a radius 3 times as wide as any that I've ever seen. I say that because, we've all seen blind people use their canes/walking sticks (I'm not really sure what they're called) with a sweeping motion in front of them. It normally seems that its a fairly short sweep in front of them, but this lady was ensuring that no obstacle existed within 6 feet on either side of her. Again, I am in no way trying to make fun of her. I'm merely recounting the events that I witnessed in hopes that you guys will read them and agree that they are weird as shit.
So...as I sit there, scenarios blazing through my mind. It happens. In the most perfect or perfect timings. As her walking stick sweeps far left, it fails to locate the large trash can on her right. By now, I assume she is late for class, because she is walking at a feverish pace. BAM!!!! She careens off of the trash can. I didn't have a radar gun, but I would have clocked her at roughly 6-7mph. That's straight up moving for walking! Had this been normal class time, many, many people would have seen this and responded appropriately or inappropriately (most likely inappropriately). Despite what you'd think, my reaction was that of shock. "No way that just happened."
She was unfazed. She kept about her day. I'm sure its something to be expected. I sat there, half chuckling at the absurdity of it all and half ashamed that I was the only there to witness it and then have no one to gauge my reaction off of. That's what I mean when I make the "Truman Show" comparisons. This was truly one of those moments where I couldn't believe what was going on. 15 minutes later, I couldn't believe that no one jumped out laughing and telling me it was a joke.
As a way of proving this theory, I've started recounting the things that I've witnessed in the last year or so. Since no one has emailed me at chemosabe23 at gmail dot com (sorry had to write it out because while Spam may be a delicious canned meat to some, I prefer not to deal with it) with funny videos or links for me to look at and then make fun of, I've just decided that for the time being, I'll recount something each week or so that you all can then let me know whether its insane to think that it is weird that shit keeps happening when I'm around.
So if we are facebook friends (you. are. welcome. btw.) you likely noticed my post earlier about the blind girl. Whether you did or didn't, I'll gladly recount this story so that you all may feel the awkwardness that I felt when this happened. This semester I have a History class at 6:20am. Yes, I realize how stupid that sentence is. To be honest, I don't mind it that much because it enables you to have a good portion of your day going before anyone gets to campus. Anyways, this morning we had our first exam and thus, I was finished at roughly 7am and had an hour before my next class. The student center was on the way to my next class, and I knew that no normal (read: annoying) college student would be around, so I thought it was a good way to kill an hour, plus chik-fil-a is there, and unless you're a communist, who doesn't enjoy a good chicken biscuit? The answer is Kim Jong Il. He doesn't enjoy a chicken biscuit because he's dead. He's also a communist. Really not sure which reason supersedes the other on why he doesn't like chicken biscuits.
I'm sitting in the booth enjoying the first chicken biscuit that was sold on MTSU's campus this morning (yes, I'm proud) and I see this girl coming towards me. I immediately note some distinct differences. A) She is walking with a huge cane/walking stick... which leads me to B) She is blind.
Let me stop here to let you grasp the fact, that at no point do I intend to poke fun at her condition, or the daily trials that she likely deals with. The following is merely an observation on what else I noticed about her and the events thereafter. No more. No less.
Once she gets closer, I notice that she has a giant eyebrow ring above her right eye. Call me an asshole, but if you aren't magically still living in any year before 2005, then you have no business with a piercing in your eyebrow. Regardless of anything else, you just shouldn't do it. Compound the fact that, I assume she has never seen what this thing looks like and you can understand how I thought this was awkward. It was more awkward because I felt bad for judging her even though it was a trivial brow accoutrement. I was fixated on developing any back story that seemed remotely feasible to explain why a blind girl would pierce her eyebrow. I had nothing. Keep in mind that as I'm distracted by her life's story, she is walking through the middle of the student center sweeping her cane in a radius 3 times as wide as any that I've ever seen. I say that because, we've all seen blind people use their canes/walking sticks (I'm not really sure what they're called) with a sweeping motion in front of them. It normally seems that its a fairly short sweep in front of them, but this lady was ensuring that no obstacle existed within 6 feet on either side of her. Again, I am in no way trying to make fun of her. I'm merely recounting the events that I witnessed in hopes that you guys will read them and agree that they are weird as shit.
So...as I sit there, scenarios blazing through my mind. It happens. In the most perfect or perfect timings. As her walking stick sweeps far left, it fails to locate the large trash can on her right. By now, I assume she is late for class, because she is walking at a feverish pace. BAM!!!! She careens off of the trash can. I didn't have a radar gun, but I would have clocked her at roughly 6-7mph. That's straight up moving for walking! Had this been normal class time, many, many people would have seen this and responded appropriately or inappropriately (most likely inappropriately). Despite what you'd think, my reaction was that of shock. "No way that just happened."
She was unfazed. She kept about her day. I'm sure its something to be expected. I sat there, half chuckling at the absurdity of it all and half ashamed that I was the only there to witness it and then have no one to gauge my reaction off of. That's what I mean when I make the "Truman Show" comparisons. This was truly one of those moments where I couldn't believe what was going on. 15 minutes later, I couldn't believe that no one jumped out laughing and telling me it was a joke.
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