There sure is a lot of Eurotrash in London. There's a lot of Eurotrash everywhere in Europe, to be sure. I mean, you can't really escape French people in France, or Italians in Italy. Turns out you can't escape them in the UK, either. How do you identify Eurotrash, or distinguish it from ordinary Europeans? Four easy steps!
1) Cigarette in hand. I mean, that one should be a no-brainer. Forget carbon dioxide emissions, the Kyoto Protocol ought to deal with the perpetual cloud of cigarette smoke that Europe is choking under.
2) Tight jeans. Especially around the calves and ankles. This one applies to men and women!
3) General rudeness. Loud conversations across a train car, no heed paid to other pedestrians, ignoring the clear (and multi-lingual) instructions to "keep moving" in the chapels in Westminster Abbey.
4) Blatant tourism. Not that we Americans aren't guilty of this--we are, far more often than I'd like us to be--but Eurotrash take it to a whole new level. Please, stop holding up traffic on the Tube to consult your "Londra" guidebook.
In England, the English is largely very good, as you might assume. Sentences are concise but complete, and always informative. "We're working to renovate the escalators for this Tube station. These repairs will last until late 2011." That, as opposed to what you'd see on, say, Marta: "ESCALATORS UNDER RENOVATION", without the luxury of punctuation, let alone a verb.
There's a handful of linguistic anomalies that the Brits are fond of, though, that don't make too much sense to me. For example, see how I used "that" in that last sentence? It's a relative pronoun, designed to introduce the clause "the Brits are fond of". There, "that" is the "correct" pronoun to use, because it's a restrictive clause. The information is necessary to make the sentence make sense. In Britain, however, "which" seems to be used for any relative clause, regardless of restriction. "That" seems to be reserved for a demonstrative pronoun. And that's sure not what I learned in high school English class.
But one thing I do remember learning in high school English, that I thought completely insane at the time, is the use of singular nouns that "act" as plural. "The family are coming to dinner", as opposed to "the family is coming to dinner." Apparently, because "family" is understood to contain more than one person, it's treated as a plural noun.
"No, nobody talks like that," I remember complaining back in high school. We use "family is", because we're talking about only one family. "Families are", for more than one family, and "members of the family are", if we're concerned with the individuals more than the group.
Turns out that people do talk like that--just not often in the United States. You hear it the most in talk about sporting teams. Here, we'd say "the Braves are looking to do better than 4th place this year," but "Atlanta is". In Britain, you get "Chelsea are looking to place well in next year's Champions League." So maybe this actually is correct English--but it's completely alien to American speakers, and I don't think it makes a great deal of sense anyhow.
The British culinary tradition is much maligned--and really, I can think of few things less appetizing than a giant pile of peas next to my sandwich--but English breakfast really ought to be regarded along with the best cooking in the world. Toast (and the Brits do love their toast), eggs, "bacon" (which is more a slab, like Canadian bacon, than the crispy strips that we're used to), sausage (which I think is required to come along with every meal), coffee or tea, juice. That part is expected.
Then you look to the other side of your plate and notice... baked beans? Mushrooms? A tomato? What trickery is this?
Delicious, is what it is.
Currently listening: "Klavier", Rammstein
Showing posts with label Annoyances. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Annoyances. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Cool Toys and Crappy Music
Review: T-Mobile G1
The best thing about the G1 is that it doesn't have a queer name. "Rant". "Chocolate". "Instinct". Come on, are we naming phones, or are we listing off verbs and nouns that we know? Back in my day, phones had good old robot names like "SGH-T309".
And let's not even discuss the perplexing and ambiguous "wireless" that mobile phone service has come to be known as. Lots of things are wireless. My mouse, for instance. My laptop, with respect to the internet. The commercials for various multimedia companies (I'm looking at you, AT&T) are proud to proclaim that they feature "television" (noun, no ambiguity), "internet" (noun, still no ambiguity), "home phone" (noun, even less ambiguity), and "wireless". This is an adjective, not the name of a service.
(It's like how the oil industry won't stop using "caustic" to describe sodium hydroxide, even though they know as well as the media companies that using an adjective by itself to describe a product is stupid.)
The second best thing about the G1 is that it's neither an iPhone nor a Blackberry. I can therefore have a device that's very useful and very entertaining but not figure on the douchebag scale either at the "hipster" end or the "senior vice president who thinks he's more important than he actually is" end. (Okay, okay, not everyone who uses an iPhone is a hipster. You'd best start checking your scarf habits though.)
The third best is that it tells me, depending on the season, the Braves, Tech football, or Tech basketball scores--as they happen, or as often as I'd like. And the location of the nearest Starbucks. And I can play Pac-Man. And stream Last.fm.
The general consensus is that the G1 has several unique advantages over its "smart phone" competitors: the keyboard is good, the trackball is useful, and built-in Google functionality is handy. It carries a few disadvantages, too: the software library is smaller than, say, the iPhone's, it's sort of big and heavy, and the battery life ranges from tepid to abysmal depending on how you're using the phone.
But this is the best toy I've gotten in a long, long time.
I have a new "least favorite musical artist", and her name is Lady Gaga. Remember when the worst thing we had to contend with on the radio was Fergie, or Katy Perry? "I Kissed a Girl" sounds like musical genius now. I promise, if I hear this "Poker Face" business one more time, I am going to turn off the radio no matter where I am. "But sir, you can't turn off the radio to the entire Target." Watch me.
Currently listening: "Shambala", Three Dog Night
The best thing about the G1 is that it doesn't have a queer name. "Rant". "Chocolate". "Instinct". Come on, are we naming phones, or are we listing off verbs and nouns that we know? Back in my day, phones had good old robot names like "SGH-T309".
And let's not even discuss the perplexing and ambiguous "wireless" that mobile phone service has come to be known as. Lots of things are wireless. My mouse, for instance. My laptop, with respect to the internet. The commercials for various multimedia companies (I'm looking at you, AT&T) are proud to proclaim that they feature "television" (noun, no ambiguity), "internet" (noun, still no ambiguity), "home phone" (noun, even less ambiguity), and "wireless". This is an adjective, not the name of a service.
(It's like how the oil industry won't stop using "caustic" to describe sodium hydroxide, even though they know as well as the media companies that using an adjective by itself to describe a product is stupid.)
The second best thing about the G1 is that it's neither an iPhone nor a Blackberry. I can therefore have a device that's very useful and very entertaining but not figure on the douchebag scale either at the "hipster" end or the "senior vice president who thinks he's more important than he actually is" end. (Okay, okay, not everyone who uses an iPhone is a hipster. You'd best start checking your scarf habits though.)
The third best is that it tells me, depending on the season, the Braves, Tech football, or Tech basketball scores--as they happen, or as often as I'd like. And the location of the nearest Starbucks. And I can play Pac-Man. And stream Last.fm.
The general consensus is that the G1 has several unique advantages over its "smart phone" competitors: the keyboard is good, the trackball is useful, and built-in Google functionality is handy. It carries a few disadvantages, too: the software library is smaller than, say, the iPhone's, it's sort of big and heavy, and the battery life ranges from tepid to abysmal depending on how you're using the phone.
But this is the best toy I've gotten in a long, long time.
I have a new "least favorite musical artist", and her name is Lady Gaga. Remember when the worst thing we had to contend with on the radio was Fergie, or Katy Perry? "I Kissed a Girl" sounds like musical genius now. I promise, if I hear this "Poker Face" business one more time, I am going to turn off the radio no matter where I am. "But sir, you can't turn off the radio to the entire Target." Watch me.
Currently listening: "Shambala", Three Dog Night
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Quick Lesson In Driving
If a traffic light is not working at a 4-way intersection, you treat it as a 4-way stop. You do not have an excuse to blow through the intersection. You still must use your turn signal. Take turns, and do not pull out in front of another driver. If there happens to be a pedestrian in the crosswalk, he has the right of way, just as if he had a "white man walking" sign. Therefore, please be kind and do not honk at him as if he were jaywalking.
It'll make 10th and State a much happier intersection, I promise.
Currently listening: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", the Beatles
It'll make 10th and State a much happier intersection, I promise.
Currently listening: "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", the Beatles
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Trash on TV and Annoyances in Alton
I didn't even realize how well that alliteration would line up until after I typed it.
I was about to remark a couple of weeks ago that I turned on MTV and couldn't find any trash. Forget one world government or the conversion of Israel into a giant garden, there would be no surer sign of the apocalypse. Now, I'm not saying there wasn't anything trashy on MTV at all. There was plenty of the Real World, which you could argue was in fact the original "trash on MTV" show. And "America's Best Dance Crew" is less trashy than just irritating, maybe a dumbed-down version of American Idol. (I really don't understand "dance" as a culture at all. It would never occur to me to want to watch people dancing in the same way that I might want to watch people acting or playing music. And I have to confess to having no idea what a "master mix" is.)
I wanted to find something entertainingly trashy, though, something along the lines of "A Shot at Love", which is Tila Tequila's bisexual dating show. Or "The X Effect". So I was pleasantly surprised to find "Parental Control" and "Next" shown right after one another. The former is a show where two parents hate the guy or girl that their child is dating, and fix her or him up on two blind dates in an attempt to rectify that. And the latter is the sleaziest speed-dating situation ever devised: when a guy or girl doesn't like a potential suitor for whatever reason, he or she can yell "next" and another douchebag emerges from the bus without fail.
"Douchebag" is the operative word here too. I have a theory that you can tell exactly how much of a douche a guy is by the angle of his hat. Forward is not inherently douche--it might be baseball player or white trash or old-school rapper. Backwards is not inherently douche either--maybe frat boy (which indirectly might imply douche) or gangster-era rapper. Even sideways might or might not be. When you can spot a clear sign is when the hat is slightly oversized, slightly cocked to either the right or the left, maybe plus or minus fifteen or twenty degrees. I'd estimate that a third of all the males on these two shows have this douche giveaway. (The rest of them have other tells.)
As always, when I'm watching trashy shows, two things amaze me. The first is the contestants'/actors' vocabularies. Every time I hear a white kid saying something is "real" or "tight", I shake my head--and I end up shaking my head a lot. Every time a guy describes a girl as "totally hot", you'd think there was no other adjective in the English language to describe attractiveness. The second is the fact that these people are evidently doing nothing with their lives. These people are my age, give or take maybe three years, and I swear the most ambitious thing I've heard is "I'm going to college for TV marketing." I'm not expecting everyone to be a doctor or architect or businessman, but honestly? "I work at an In-n-Out Burger"?
And MTV... it doesn't matter how many times you play that "Corona and Lime" song by Shwayze. It does not make it any more listenable.
One thing that I really miss about Atlanta is Publix. It's no secret that I kind of like grocery shopping, and I've gotten comfortable doing it at Publix. They're always clean. Well-lit (heck, the Spring Street location even has windows, one of the only grocery stores I know to include such amenities). High-quality produce and store brands. Fine selection of anything from wine to deli. And the local stores just don't compare. I've grown to prefer Shop-n-Save over Schnuck's, for no good reason other than the layout is better and the volume is more impressive. But the environment is just not as accommodating in either store as I've grown to expect.
Another thing is the roads. "You have to be crazy. You miss driving in Atlanta?" Well, no, not really. But the roads here have their own special character to them. There are way too many motorcycles, like packs of a dozen of them that just show up on your street every Saturday and Sunday, making it impossible go go faster than 30. Worse, stop signs predominate. I'm not talking, there's the occasional stop sign that you might inadvertently miss. I mean practically every intersection, from the seemingly inconsequential one of two residential streets, to what actually turns out to be a major one of multi-lane commercial highways, are regulated by stop signs. And it serves as a reminder about why the stop light is superior. Specifically, people do not know how to navigate stop signs. They don't like to take turns, and they sure as hell don't find it necessary to stop for pedestrians.
Currently listening: Coming to Terms, Carolina Liar
I was about to remark a couple of weeks ago that I turned on MTV and couldn't find any trash. Forget one world government or the conversion of Israel into a giant garden, there would be no surer sign of the apocalypse. Now, I'm not saying there wasn't anything trashy on MTV at all. There was plenty of the Real World, which you could argue was in fact the original "trash on MTV" show. And "America's Best Dance Crew" is less trashy than just irritating, maybe a dumbed-down version of American Idol. (I really don't understand "dance" as a culture at all. It would never occur to me to want to watch people dancing in the same way that I might want to watch people acting or playing music. And I have to confess to having no idea what a "master mix" is.)
I wanted to find something entertainingly trashy, though, something along the lines of "A Shot at Love", which is Tila Tequila's bisexual dating show. Or "The X Effect". So I was pleasantly surprised to find "Parental Control" and "Next" shown right after one another. The former is a show where two parents hate the guy or girl that their child is dating, and fix her or him up on two blind dates in an attempt to rectify that. And the latter is the sleaziest speed-dating situation ever devised: when a guy or girl doesn't like a potential suitor for whatever reason, he or she can yell "next" and another douchebag emerges from the bus without fail.
"Douchebag" is the operative word here too. I have a theory that you can tell exactly how much of a douche a guy is by the angle of his hat. Forward is not inherently douche--it might be baseball player or white trash or old-school rapper. Backwards is not inherently douche either--maybe frat boy (which indirectly might imply douche) or gangster-era rapper. Even sideways might or might not be. When you can spot a clear sign is when the hat is slightly oversized, slightly cocked to either the right or the left, maybe plus or minus fifteen or twenty degrees. I'd estimate that a third of all the males on these two shows have this douche giveaway. (The rest of them have other tells.)
As always, when I'm watching trashy shows, two things amaze me. The first is the contestants'/actors' vocabularies. Every time I hear a white kid saying something is "real" or "tight", I shake my head--and I end up shaking my head a lot. Every time a guy describes a girl as "totally hot", you'd think there was no other adjective in the English language to describe attractiveness. The second is the fact that these people are evidently doing nothing with their lives. These people are my age, give or take maybe three years, and I swear the most ambitious thing I've heard is "I'm going to college for TV marketing." I'm not expecting everyone to be a doctor or architect or businessman, but honestly? "I work at an In-n-Out Burger"?
And MTV... it doesn't matter how many times you play that "Corona and Lime" song by Shwayze. It does not make it any more listenable.
One thing that I really miss about Atlanta is Publix. It's no secret that I kind of like grocery shopping, and I've gotten comfortable doing it at Publix. They're always clean. Well-lit (heck, the Spring Street location even has windows, one of the only grocery stores I know to include such amenities). High-quality produce and store brands. Fine selection of anything from wine to deli. And the local stores just don't compare. I've grown to prefer Shop-n-Save over Schnuck's, for no good reason other than the layout is better and the volume is more impressive. But the environment is just not as accommodating in either store as I've grown to expect.
Another thing is the roads. "You have to be crazy. You miss driving in Atlanta?" Well, no, not really. But the roads here have their own special character to them. There are way too many motorcycles, like packs of a dozen of them that just show up on your street every Saturday and Sunday, making it impossible go go faster than 30. Worse, stop signs predominate. I'm not talking, there's the occasional stop sign that you might inadvertently miss. I mean practically every intersection, from the seemingly inconsequential one of two residential streets, to what actually turns out to be a major one of multi-lane commercial highways, are regulated by stop signs. And it serves as a reminder about why the stop light is superior. Specifically, people do not know how to navigate stop signs. They don't like to take turns, and they sure as hell don't find it necessary to stop for pedestrians.
Currently listening: Coming to Terms, Carolina Liar
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Words that I Hate
You know how buzzwords insinuate themselves throughout society? In science: biocompatibility; in technology: convergence; in current events: whatever talking point Congress has today. Most of these are tolerable. A few are inexcusable.
My biggest gripe lately is "sustainability". 39,500,000 Google results. For comparison, that classic computer entertainment "solitaire" brings in a mere 22,600,000 results. Wikipedia gives a definition telling me that "Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely." Thanks! In chemical engineering land, we call that "steady-state." Then we get into the "environmental" implications of this invented term, having to do with maintaining climate levels and the rest. Without delving into ecopolitics, do we really need a term for that? "Oh, look, we want the environment to keep going." "I'd rather have a source of energy than not." It's sort of like the Darfur example I'm so fond of: just as there really isn't anyone who likes genocide, there's nobody who actually wants the system they're buying into to break down suddenly. Nobody wants their environment to be non-sustainable. And yet? "Sustainability" has become a sine qua non for researchers and industrialists.
It's time we realized that nothing is the new anything. "(blank) is the new black" originated from the mystifying world of fashion, which might be why I'm biased against it in the first place. As long as it was confined to catwalks and flamboyant Parisians, I could ignore whichever permutation of old color-new color correlation was being promoted at the time. It's not that I necessarily liked it, but I could write it off as a vagary of that particular scene. Things are different when it goes into mainstream culture. I just saw--get this--a car product TV commercial that proclaimed "orange is the new fast." That doesn't even make any sense.
Tantamount to heresy in Web 2.0 is the notion that "tagging" is anything but messianic social revolution. Feel free to brand me a heretic, in that case. I use and really, really like the music library network Last.fm. It gives me an idea of what I listen to, it lets me know what concerts are coming up for bands that I like, and it recommends artists that I may never have heard of. That said, I do not care which bands you have seen live. I do not care if you think some music is "female vocalist" as opposed to "singer-songwriter." And I sure as hell will never understand the difference between "indie," "indie rock," "indie pop," "rock," and "pop." I will never understand this difference on the basis of legitimate authority... so why do you assume I will care what some random fan categorizes music as?
Finally, and sort of linked to the notion of "sustainability" is "footprint". Back in my day, a footprint was something you left when you walked in he mud. As I learned more about architecture and how cities worked (mostly through strategy games, to tell the truth), I learned that this word is also properly applied to how much physical space a structure is going to take up. It is not, however, proper as a metaphor to describe your effect on the environment. Carbon does not leave a footprint. It diffuses.
Currently listening: "Invasion," Eisley
My biggest gripe lately is "sustainability". 39,500,000 Google results. For comparison, that classic computer entertainment "solitaire" brings in a mere 22,600,000 results. Wikipedia gives a definition telling me that "Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely." Thanks! In chemical engineering land, we call that "steady-state." Then we get into the "environmental" implications of this invented term, having to do with maintaining climate levels and the rest. Without delving into ecopolitics, do we really need a term for that? "Oh, look, we want the environment to keep going." "I'd rather have a source of energy than not." It's sort of like the Darfur example I'm so fond of: just as there really isn't anyone who likes genocide, there's nobody who actually wants the system they're buying into to break down suddenly. Nobody wants their environment to be non-sustainable. And yet? "Sustainability" has become a sine qua non for researchers and industrialists.
It's time we realized that nothing is the new anything. "(blank) is the new black" originated from the mystifying world of fashion, which might be why I'm biased against it in the first place. As long as it was confined to catwalks and flamboyant Parisians, I could ignore whichever permutation of old color-new color correlation was being promoted at the time. It's not that I necessarily liked it, but I could write it off as a vagary of that particular scene. Things are different when it goes into mainstream culture. I just saw--get this--a car product TV commercial that proclaimed "orange is the new fast." That doesn't even make any sense.
Tantamount to heresy in Web 2.0 is the notion that "tagging" is anything but messianic social revolution. Feel free to brand me a heretic, in that case. I use and really, really like the music library network Last.fm. It gives me an idea of what I listen to, it lets me know what concerts are coming up for bands that I like, and it recommends artists that I may never have heard of. That said, I do not care which bands you have seen live. I do not care if you think some music is "female vocalist" as opposed to "singer-songwriter." And I sure as hell will never understand the difference between "indie," "indie rock," "indie pop," "rock," and "pop." I will never understand this difference on the basis of legitimate authority... so why do you assume I will care what some random fan categorizes music as?
Finally, and sort of linked to the notion of "sustainability" is "footprint". Back in my day, a footprint was something you left when you walked in he mud. As I learned more about architecture and how cities worked (mostly through strategy games, to tell the truth), I learned that this word is also properly applied to how much physical space a structure is going to take up. It is not, however, proper as a metaphor to describe your effect on the environment. Carbon does not leave a footprint. It diffuses.
Currently listening: "Invasion," Eisley
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Goals, Leadership, and Finding Yourself
In other words, three of the greatest sources of crap to be perpetrated on American society besides MTV in the last decade or two.
Goals are at least real. It's perfectly natural to think "I have a B in this class, and I want it to be an A." Or "I'm going to study my tournament bracket even harder next year so I won't be in danger of losing to a girl." Or even "I'm going to level twice in WoW tonight so I can go on that awesome raid tomorrow." Whatever floats your boat.
What's crap about them, though, is the thought that goals are mandatory. Setting a goal in some way implies that what you're doing at the time isn't good enough. Clearly I recognize that nothing is perfect. You can't be completely awesome in everything all the time. But if you're content at any given moment, both at the current state of things, and the current direction that things seem to be proceeding in, what's the need to express an explicit change that needs to be made? Forgive the physics analogy, but an object with motion will maintain that motion unless an external force acts upon it. If your current "motion," that is, your methods, actions, and ideas, are taking you exactly where you want to be, what's the point of setting forward a goal to say that? In other words, I see the point of goal-setting as a reactive measure, but as a means of forcing progress, it's unwarranted.
Leadership, too, is real. Some people do indeed lead others, and others follow. History is full of great people who have made a difference in their situation because of outstanding leadership: Washington, Genghis Khan, Hannibal, and the list goes on and on.
Here's a harsh truth to both the freshmen of Georgia Tech and the faculty/staff that insist this is all necessary. Nobody here is going to become the next Genghis Khan. Freshmen do not need six different leadership organizations shoved in their faces and basically told "If you want to be successful at Georgia Tech, you will join one of these." Never mind that they all do some facet of the same thing. It's not localized to Georgia Tech, I'm sure; that's merely what I'm familiar with. The biggest issue I have here is that not everyone needs to be a leader. Those that truly want to lead, or that have an actual talent for it, will become involved in organizations that they enjoy, then seek leadership positions within those organizations. Real leaders, after all, need people to lead. And even leaders need to do something besides lead every once in a while.
My personal approach to leadership? First, gain the respect of those you're trying to lead through a show of competence and ability. Then translate that respect into solidarity toward a cause.
Finally, maybe someone can clarify for me what it means to find yourself. I'm right here. No, really. Here I am. Look! I found myself, and I was sitting in Glenn Hall all along! Clearly, the intent is deeper than this. I know it has some sort of ridiculous pseudo-spiritual motivation, designed to represent some sort of inner emotional awakening, and to inspire a change in course of life. (Maybe an inspiration to set a Goal.) Often, it's coupled to an outlandish trip to Ass End, Zimbabwe; or Malaria Village, Honduras; or Really I'm Not Here To Find A Prostitute, Thailand. Even the friendly local branch of the student travel agency here on campus has an endorsement from some guy who went to Tanzania to "find himself in the beauty of the East African sunrise."
Good job. If you're in East Africa, and it's early morning, you're probably going to find yourself in a sunrise. I could go find myself in the beauty of a Downtown Connector sunrise tomorrow morning, if I really wanted to. Here's the thing: you can't make a spiritual journey happen. It's like a Zen master would say, if you're looking for enlightenment, you've already missed the point of finding it. Vacations are a wonderful thing: taking a break for a while to ignore those TPS reports, or that Thermo homework, and just chill. Seeing the world, being immersed in cultures, and that sort of thing, is amazing. The opportunity to get to know what all is out there is a great experience. But call it what it is. If you're trying to make yourself have some sort of awakening, great, more power to you. If you go to Whale Blubber, Alaska to try to force that to happen, then chances are you're just having a really cold vacation. Not that there's anything wrong with that; just call it what it is.
Currently listening: "Dani California," Red Hot Chili Peppers
Goals are at least real. It's perfectly natural to think "I have a B in this class, and I want it to be an A." Or "I'm going to study my tournament bracket even harder next year so I won't be in danger of losing to a girl." Or even "I'm going to level twice in WoW tonight so I can go on that awesome raid tomorrow." Whatever floats your boat.
What's crap about them, though, is the thought that goals are mandatory. Setting a goal in some way implies that what you're doing at the time isn't good enough. Clearly I recognize that nothing is perfect. You can't be completely awesome in everything all the time. But if you're content at any given moment, both at the current state of things, and the current direction that things seem to be proceeding in, what's the need to express an explicit change that needs to be made? Forgive the physics analogy, but an object with motion will maintain that motion unless an external force acts upon it. If your current "motion," that is, your methods, actions, and ideas, are taking you exactly where you want to be, what's the point of setting forward a goal to say that? In other words, I see the point of goal-setting as a reactive measure, but as a means of forcing progress, it's unwarranted.
Leadership, too, is real. Some people do indeed lead others, and others follow. History is full of great people who have made a difference in their situation because of outstanding leadership: Washington, Genghis Khan, Hannibal, and the list goes on and on.
Here's a harsh truth to both the freshmen of Georgia Tech and the faculty/staff that insist this is all necessary. Nobody here is going to become the next Genghis Khan. Freshmen do not need six different leadership organizations shoved in their faces and basically told "If you want to be successful at Georgia Tech, you will join one of these." Never mind that they all do some facet of the same thing. It's not localized to Georgia Tech, I'm sure; that's merely what I'm familiar with. The biggest issue I have here is that not everyone needs to be a leader. Those that truly want to lead, or that have an actual talent for it, will become involved in organizations that they enjoy, then seek leadership positions within those organizations. Real leaders, after all, need people to lead. And even leaders need to do something besides lead every once in a while.
My personal approach to leadership? First, gain the respect of those you're trying to lead through a show of competence and ability. Then translate that respect into solidarity toward a cause.
Finally, maybe someone can clarify for me what it means to find yourself. I'm right here. No, really. Here I am. Look! I found myself, and I was sitting in Glenn Hall all along! Clearly, the intent is deeper than this. I know it has some sort of ridiculous pseudo-spiritual motivation, designed to represent some sort of inner emotional awakening, and to inspire a change in course of life. (Maybe an inspiration to set a Goal.) Often, it's coupled to an outlandish trip to Ass End, Zimbabwe; or Malaria Village, Honduras; or Really I'm Not Here To Find A Prostitute, Thailand. Even the friendly local branch of the student travel agency here on campus has an endorsement from some guy who went to Tanzania to "find himself in the beauty of the East African sunrise."
Good job. If you're in East Africa, and it's early morning, you're probably going to find yourself in a sunrise. I could go find myself in the beauty of a Downtown Connector sunrise tomorrow morning, if I really wanted to. Here's the thing: you can't make a spiritual journey happen. It's like a Zen master would say, if you're looking for enlightenment, you've already missed the point of finding it. Vacations are a wonderful thing: taking a break for a while to ignore those TPS reports, or that Thermo homework, and just chill. Seeing the world, being immersed in cultures, and that sort of thing, is amazing. The opportunity to get to know what all is out there is a great experience. But call it what it is. If you're trying to make yourself have some sort of awakening, great, more power to you. If you go to Whale Blubber, Alaska to try to force that to happen, then chances are you're just having a really cold vacation. Not that there's anything wrong with that; just call it what it is.
Currently listening: "Dani California," Red Hot Chili Peppers
Monday, January 15, 2007
So this is the...
...first anniversary of Isoceleria! (And you thought I was going to go for the Death Cab reference.) I'd like to commemorate by talking about music: the worst of 2006 and the hopeful best of 2007.
First, there were decent and good things happening in 2006 in music. The American releases of Rosenrot and Eye to the Telescope marked the best in old music that recently made it to the States; Light Grenades, Sam's Town, and Under the Iron Sea, three albums that I didn't necessarily like so much but that sort of grew on me as I listened to them more; the over-rated (but still appreciated) appearance of The Fray; and of course the (mostly) brilliance of The Crane Wife and Ganging Up on the Sun. Oh, and Lordi wins Eurovision, proving that guys playing hard rock in monster costumes are freaking awesome (as if we needed any proof). Now on to the not-so-decent parts.
Did we really need sexy to be brought back? Moreover, did we need it to be brought back by Justin Timberlake? I think there are about twenty words in this song, sixteen of which are a thinly veiled S&M fantasy. Timberlake was often praised as being having the best voice of whichever boy band he hailed from (because that's high praise). And this monstrosity of a song makes it so you can't understand what the hell he's saying anyway. This is one of the most vapid, hideous songs I've ever heard, and somehow it became one of the best-known and most widely played songs of the year.
I didn't really have anything against Nelly Furtado until that "Promiscuous" piece of crap appeared halfway through the year. Great. You're a ho. That means you have a good song?
The Black Eyed Peas need to be stopped. Now. What kind of a title is "My Humps" for a song? I know that "Let's Get it Started" was not from 2006, but people still play it in commercials and other high-visibility locations. And give me a legitimate definition of "phunk" as a verb, and I'll pay you five bucks. Interestingly, the one factor that might contribute the most to the Black Eyes Peas' downfall is Fergie's solo career. Ever heard the phrase "out of the frying pan, into the fire"? I don't know what's worse: "Don't Phunk with my Heart" or "Fergalicious." Why anyone would willingly submit himself/herself to listening to anything involving Fergie is completely beyond me.
Okay, so everybody knows how much all those other bands suck; here's a more controversial nomination. I think one of the worst "alternative rock" songs that received commercial publicity this year was "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" by Panic! at the Disco. The first time I heard this song, my initial reaction was something like "oh, wow! These guys sure know big words!" In the same way that Nelly Furtado's unabashed prostitutitude does not make her song good, Panic's cramming words like "rationality" into their chorus does not make their song good. To be fair, I've never seen Panic live, nor have I seen an interview with any of their musicians. But I have a funny feeling that Panic's vocabulary (and their unnecessarily long song titles) is an outgrowth of their arrogance; not the intentional grandiloquence of the Decemberists or my playful pass at elitism, but rather the egomania akin to Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
The preponderance of rap on the singles charts need not be mentioned. The rap culture is so fleeting that artists popular now are not necessarily worth formulating an argument against because they'll be gone in a few years anyway.
So we're in pretty bad shape for the next year, right? Maybe not.
Singularity by Mae. Enough said. April 2007.
Coldplay has an album coming out in October. Popular opinion about X&Y was sharply divided; I rather liked it, but I know a whole lot of people who didn't. Hopefully the new one will be more universally seen as good.
Something Corporate is a band I believe to be vastly underrated. Jimmy Eat World is one that a lot of people recognize is good. Motion City Soundtrack is somewhere in the middle, not vastly popular but appreciated. And all three of bands are rumored to have something coming out this year. I'm looking forward to those.
And finally, if you're interested in pursuing this further (perhaps because your musical tastes are slightly off from mine) you can check a much more comprehensive list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_in_music.
Currently listening: Transatlanticism, Death Cab for Cutie
First, there were decent and good things happening in 2006 in music. The American releases of Rosenrot and Eye to the Telescope marked the best in old music that recently made it to the States; Light Grenades, Sam's Town, and Under the Iron Sea, three albums that I didn't necessarily like so much but that sort of grew on me as I listened to them more; the over-rated (but still appreciated) appearance of The Fray; and of course the (mostly) brilliance of The Crane Wife and Ganging Up on the Sun. Oh, and Lordi wins Eurovision, proving that guys playing hard rock in monster costumes are freaking awesome (as if we needed any proof). Now on to the not-so-decent parts.
Did we really need sexy to be brought back? Moreover, did we need it to be brought back by Justin Timberlake? I think there are about twenty words in this song, sixteen of which are a thinly veiled S&M fantasy. Timberlake was often praised as being having the best voice of whichever boy band he hailed from (because that's high praise). And this monstrosity of a song makes it so you can't understand what the hell he's saying anyway. This is one of the most vapid, hideous songs I've ever heard, and somehow it became one of the best-known and most widely played songs of the year.
I didn't really have anything against Nelly Furtado until that "Promiscuous" piece of crap appeared halfway through the year. Great. You're a ho. That means you have a good song?
The Black Eyed Peas need to be stopped. Now. What kind of a title is "My Humps" for a song? I know that "Let's Get it Started" was not from 2006, but people still play it in commercials and other high-visibility locations. And give me a legitimate definition of "phunk" as a verb, and I'll pay you five bucks. Interestingly, the one factor that might contribute the most to the Black Eyes Peas' downfall is Fergie's solo career. Ever heard the phrase "out of the frying pan, into the fire"? I don't know what's worse: "Don't Phunk with my Heart" or "Fergalicious." Why anyone would willingly submit himself/herself to listening to anything involving Fergie is completely beyond me.
Okay, so everybody knows how much all those other bands suck; here's a more controversial nomination. I think one of the worst "alternative rock" songs that received commercial publicity this year was "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" by Panic! at the Disco. The first time I heard this song, my initial reaction was something like "oh, wow! These guys sure know big words!" In the same way that Nelly Furtado's unabashed prostitutitude does not make her song good, Panic's cramming words like "rationality" into their chorus does not make their song good. To be fair, I've never seen Panic live, nor have I seen an interview with any of their musicians. But I have a funny feeling that Panic's vocabulary (and their unnecessarily long song titles) is an outgrowth of their arrogance; not the intentional grandiloquence of the Decemberists or my playful pass at elitism, but rather the egomania akin to Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
The preponderance of rap on the singles charts need not be mentioned. The rap culture is so fleeting that artists popular now are not necessarily worth formulating an argument against because they'll be gone in a few years anyway.
So we're in pretty bad shape for the next year, right? Maybe not.
Singularity by Mae. Enough said. April 2007.
Coldplay has an album coming out in October. Popular opinion about X&Y was sharply divided; I rather liked it, but I know a whole lot of people who didn't. Hopefully the new one will be more universally seen as good.
Something Corporate is a band I believe to be vastly underrated. Jimmy Eat World is one that a lot of people recognize is good. Motion City Soundtrack is somewhere in the middle, not vastly popular but appreciated. And all three of bands are rumored to have something coming out this year. I'm looking forward to those.
And finally, if you're interested in pursuing this further (perhaps because your musical tastes are slightly off from mine) you can check a much more comprehensive list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_in_music.
Currently listening: Transatlanticism, Death Cab for Cutie
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Petty Annoyances
You know those little things that just irritate you? There's not necessarily a good, solid reason for any of them; you just know that if all of them stopped, you'd be okay with it. I'm not talking major obstacles like Physics II or Being a Poor College Student; I mean actions, behaviors, and patterns that you find obnoxious. A handful of these have begun to grate on my nerves as of late.
That annoying leg-bounce thing that mostly guys do (but some girls do as well). You're sitting in Differential Equations (granted, a setting that does need a bit of livening up), you notice that there seems to be an overabundance of movement in the room... and you realize that it's because the six guys seated near you are all bouncing their legs up and down really fast. Sometimes it's both legs, sometimes one or the other. Sometimes it's keeping the heel on the ground and bouncing the toe, but more often it's a heel bounce. Okay, guys. There's absolutely no reason to do this. If you're really that antsy, head to the CRC after class. Drink one less cup of coffee before you come. Take this as an opportunity to kick that cocaine habit... something.
Darfur is a geopolitical issue that I think everyone feels similarly regarding, but that activists feel the need to carry on about anyway. "Genocide? That's no good! How do I show the world that I'm an opponent of genocide?" Conveniently, there have been a large number of feel-good "student solidarity" groups that have popped up on Facebook lately. One of the most prominent is one that promises a monetary donation for every so many people to join. Hate to break it to you, but you're no Lech Walesa. Really, I don't think there are any proponents of genocide, except probably the guys doing the genocide. And what does it mean to "donate [money] to Darfur"? Are you going to put some dollars in an envelope, write "Darfur" on it, and hope the area of the country accepts its gift? If you're donating to people, what exactly are they going to do with your money? Bribe a couple of warlords not to keep genociding? It's great that people are informed about world events, don't get me wrong. But what exactly is hanging signs that say "Gee, there seems to be a bit of a genocide issue in Sudan!" going to do? By stating your mere awareness of an armed conflict there... where are you going? What do you reasonably expect anyone in power to actually do?
Possibly going hand in hand with the "lack of intellectualism" that I always complain about, negativity seems to be prevalent at Tech. It's one thing to joke about "the Shaft" but another entirely to lament how much everything sucks, all the time. If something doesn't go your way, here's a little heuristic that generally works. "Can I really do anything about this?" If yes, stop complaining and do it. If no, get over it. It's as simple as that. It gets old when you're trying to maintain a positive attitude, and others are complaining how much of an "idiot" everyone else is. A sort of corollary to this is use of "retarded" to mean "undesirable." As in "Do we really have to have this done by Friday?" "Yes." "That's so retarded!" Well, no, it isn't. It's unfortunate, it's irritating, it's annoying, but it isn't slowed by a hindered andvancement. (Also, as you probably can't change the deadline, there's nothing you can do about it anyway, so stop complaining.)
In the event that I think of more things that annoy me, I'll post them. Comments on these, or examples of what annoys you, are encouraged.
Currently listening: "Chicken Head," Project Pat
That annoying leg-bounce thing that mostly guys do (but some girls do as well). You're sitting in Differential Equations (granted, a setting that does need a bit of livening up), you notice that there seems to be an overabundance of movement in the room... and you realize that it's because the six guys seated near you are all bouncing their legs up and down really fast. Sometimes it's both legs, sometimes one or the other. Sometimes it's keeping the heel on the ground and bouncing the toe, but more often it's a heel bounce. Okay, guys. There's absolutely no reason to do this. If you're really that antsy, head to the CRC after class. Drink one less cup of coffee before you come. Take this as an opportunity to kick that cocaine habit... something.
Darfur is a geopolitical issue that I think everyone feels similarly regarding, but that activists feel the need to carry on about anyway. "Genocide? That's no good! How do I show the world that I'm an opponent of genocide?" Conveniently, there have been a large number of feel-good "student solidarity" groups that have popped up on Facebook lately. One of the most prominent is one that promises a monetary donation for every so many people to join. Hate to break it to you, but you're no Lech Walesa. Really, I don't think there are any proponents of genocide, except probably the guys doing the genocide. And what does it mean to "donate [money] to Darfur"? Are you going to put some dollars in an envelope, write "Darfur" on it, and hope the area of the country accepts its gift? If you're donating to people, what exactly are they going to do with your money? Bribe a couple of warlords not to keep genociding? It's great that people are informed about world events, don't get me wrong. But what exactly is hanging signs that say "Gee, there seems to be a bit of a genocide issue in Sudan!" going to do? By stating your mere awareness of an armed conflict there... where are you going? What do you reasonably expect anyone in power to actually do?
Possibly going hand in hand with the "lack of intellectualism" that I always complain about, negativity seems to be prevalent at Tech. It's one thing to joke about "the Shaft" but another entirely to lament how much everything sucks, all the time. If something doesn't go your way, here's a little heuristic that generally works. "Can I really do anything about this?" If yes, stop complaining and do it. If no, get over it. It's as simple as that. It gets old when you're trying to maintain a positive attitude, and others are complaining how much of an "idiot" everyone else is. A sort of corollary to this is use of "retarded" to mean "undesirable." As in "Do we really have to have this done by Friday?" "Yes." "That's so retarded!" Well, no, it isn't. It's unfortunate, it's irritating, it's annoying, but it isn't slowed by a hindered andvancement. (Also, as you probably can't change the deadline, there's nothing you can do about it anyway, so stop complaining.)
In the event that I think of more things that annoy me, I'll post them. Comments on these, or examples of what annoys you, are encouraged.
Currently listening: "Chicken Head," Project Pat
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