Dear Digital Communicators,
When did we become so lazy that we cannot take an extra 3 seconds to proof read ourselves before we send that email from our phone, or Facebook post, or a text? Yes it is hilarious and we all read the "Best Auto Correct Texts of All Time." But are they really? Aren't they just evidence of our laziness and stupidity?
The more we use this as an excuse, the more we stop practicing our skill sets in reading, writing, typing, and spelling. Doesn't it seem like these are pretty core functions of our abilities as humans to capture our culture and our history for generations to come? Our school systems are failing us enough as it is (but this is another story), so shouldn't we take the opportunities we have and encourage others to take the opportunities they have to not be dumb and lazy Americans?
To be clear, I'm not encouraging all the catty comments and corrections that pour out in response to seeing typos, poor grammar, or my favorites are just the utter lack of ability to know the difference between two words that sound the same but are in fact, very different in meaning and thereby spelling. This is not the solution - all this accomplishes is to breed resentment and provoke responses along the lines of "whatever, she's just being a bitch."
It's important to love and encourage, not belittle through condescendence. Be a part of the solution, and proof read your messages that you send into the world. Whether they are intended to be or not, they are reflections of your ability to effectively communicate and also your intellect or level of ignorance. Use learning and teaching moments to instill a solid understanding of the importance of using the English language appropriately to your children.
Especially in the work environment. My goodness. Adding a sentence into your automatically generated signature that lets all of us know to "please excuse any mistakes because the message is being sent from a mobile device" is not only lazy, but entirely unprofessional. You mean to tell me that you are so high above those that you are communicating with that you cannot spend 4 seconds to proof read yourself and make any necessary changes? It is more important to you to be quick (read flippant) with your response that you don't care that you look dumb to me?
Don't be a hypocrite. Don't shame or condone others if you are guilty. Yes we all make mistakes, but in this type of digital environment spare us all the cringe factor and for the love of Jesus, proof read.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Traffic Blows
Attention car culture, what I am about to explain to you could quite possibly change your life.
Proper lane usage. It is quite simple. when used correctly, the highway system functions in a much more efficient manner.
Left lane = passing lane. In order to qualify for driving in this lane, you should be actively attempting to pass somebody else. Whenever you are driving in this lane, take a moment to consider the humanism that it is to exist within a culture, and glance over to your right. If there is not anybody immediately ahead or just behind you in that lane, then shift over so that others may proceed in passing you. When there is nobody else on the road, you should not be in the left lane. If you are not driving over the speed limit, you should not be in the left lane. If people are passing you on the right, you should not be in the left lane.
Middle lane = driving lane for drivers traveling at least the speed limit, that may or may not have future intentions of passing or exiting. If you are driving at a slower rate than the general flow of traffic, then shift to the right lane.
Right lane = slower traffic. When traveling under the speed limit you are encouraged to drive in the right lane even if you do not plan on exiting. There is not any reason to feel ashamed, or less important, or like a failure in any way for driving in the right lane.
Remember, just because YOU want to go the speed limit, doesn't mean I want to. It is my right as an American to speed and take my own risks of getting a speeding ticket, though I appreciate your concern. Now please move right.
Right lane = slower traffic. When traveling under the speed limit you are encouraged to drive in the right lane even if you do not plan on exiting. There is not any reason to feel ashamed, or less important, or like a failure in any way for driving in the right lane.
Remember, just because YOU want to go the speed limit, doesn't mean I want to. It is my right as an American to speed and take my own risks of getting a speeding ticket, though I appreciate your concern. Now please move right.
Internet Dating
It's called guerrilla marketing. A company enters the market and their strategy is to divert users and consumers away from a product or service. In this case, online dating came into the market and built negative connotations to traditional dating: the dangers of "being out there" and the unlikeliness of actually meeting somebody that you have things in common with. Then, once they have wiped out the competing market (real life in exchange for cyber life) they flip public perception and take over the vacant market. Thus, you have match.com hosting date nights, where tons of singles take cooking classes, or dance classes, or go to designated bars or restaurants to meet other singles. Not even 5 years ago, people just did things like that all by themselves, and we have generation after generation of people to prove that dating worked just fine before the internet told you how to do it.
This has been a public service announcement. Do not let business control every aspect of your life. You dumb sheep.
Sidebar:
Forgive me for being ignorant, but do black people date differently than other people? Do they do different things to meet each other? Because I thought that people tended to interact with each other the same regardless of skin pigmentation. However, http://www.blackpeoplemeet.com/ seems to think that there are differences. Racial tension and racial discrimination can never go away if we don't stop putting any emphasis on it. People aren't born racist. Anthropologically, race does not even actually exist, it is a social construct. Cultural differences are based on education, resource and financial variations that manifest in differences in social behavior.
Just saying.
This has been a public service announcement. Do not let business control every aspect of your life. You dumb sheep.
Sidebar:
Forgive me for being ignorant, but do black people date differently than other people? Do they do different things to meet each other? Because I thought that people tended to interact with each other the same regardless of skin pigmentation. However, http://www.blackpeoplemeet.com/ seems to think that there are differences. Racial tension and racial discrimination can never go away if we don't stop putting any emphasis on it. People aren't born racist. Anthropologically, race does not even actually exist, it is a social construct. Cultural differences are based on education, resource and financial variations that manifest in differences in social behavior.
Just saying.
The Worst Americans Ever
Fall tuition is due. Now Jess and I have to make a decision as to how much money we will take out in loans to pay for our classes. Freaking blows. Our whole plan is to take as many classes as possible at once so we can finish earlier, and get real jobs and FINALLY start making enough money to do anything other than be poor ass broke college kids with a 2 year old. Unfortunately that means we will be paying off student debt for another 4-6 years after we retire.
Then Jess takes a look at the cost and breaks it down. Of the almost 5K a semester it is going to cost for him to go to school, just over 3K is for actual credit hours, the rest is for all the bo-shit fees that are variable to whatever particular school you are attending. And I'm not even going to address the outrageousness of what all of those fees are, just the mere existence of them. And before all of you 1-trick pony right-wingers start defending the necessity of the fees to operate the university and pay salaries, let me just say, that I'm not fucking dumb, and I know that the fees are necessary - to an extent. This last semester, UNT scheduled to increase fees by a total of 8% (for a bunch of "perks" that don't actually benefit the students, just to those responsible for "offerreing services" to the students). In Canada, a school planned to increase their tuition fees by only 2.5% and the student body revolted and protested, and it didn't happen. In Denton? Not a damn thing. Why? Because we are currently experiencing the weakest American generation ever.
Jesse thinks its because nobody is informed, and nobody cares. I disagree. Well, not entirely, but somewhat, but there is simply more to it than just that. While I do think there are those out there that are stupidly oblivious to their surroundings, I think that the number of people that are like that, has been fairly consistent for the entire history of our culture- increasing correspondingly with the population growth. (However, I have to have to acknowledge the variable of technological influence on communication, but that is another story another day.)
My thought is that there are the same amount of people that are pissed about this kind of stuff as there always has been (sparking the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Social Equality Movements), and just as many people complaining about it. The difference, is that now, nobody knows what to do about it. They all think that they just have to deal with it, and "it is what it is." They don't know that you could all join up together and do something about it, about anything. We all just sit around and bitch about how much we hate everything, and how everything sucks, and none of us do anything about it.
In the early 1900's, young American's thought that shit sucked, and instead of joining together, they all just worked their ass off and built something out of nothing. By the 50's, the middle class was alive and strong, and the opportunities to make something out of nothing became fewer and fewer, and thus harder and harder to obtain. So then, rather than working their ass off to obtain a positive change in society for themselves, we learned to unite, and work together, and to have a single, strong voice to get things done. But now, we don't work, because we don't see value in the pay off (because the man is keeping us down, man). And we don't join together, because we are so self absorbed (thanks 80's) and selfish to care about anyone else's problems but our own.
The irony, is that with all the social media platforms that link us all together, you would think that we would figure out that all of our problems are the same fucking problems that everyone else has. And frickin do something, anything, about it.
As I sit here, and blog to nobody, as if I were making any difference myself.
Then Jess takes a look at the cost and breaks it down. Of the almost 5K a semester it is going to cost for him to go to school, just over 3K is for actual credit hours, the rest is for all the bo-shit fees that are variable to whatever particular school you are attending. And I'm not even going to address the outrageousness of what all of those fees are, just the mere existence of them. And before all of you 1-trick pony right-wingers start defending the necessity of the fees to operate the university and pay salaries, let me just say, that I'm not fucking dumb, and I know that the fees are necessary - to an extent. This last semester, UNT scheduled to increase fees by a total of 8% (for a bunch of "perks" that don't actually benefit the students, just to those responsible for "offerreing services" to the students). In Canada, a school planned to increase their tuition fees by only 2.5% and the student body revolted and protested, and it didn't happen. In Denton? Not a damn thing. Why? Because we are currently experiencing the weakest American generation ever.
Jesse thinks its because nobody is informed, and nobody cares. I disagree. Well, not entirely, but somewhat, but there is simply more to it than just that. While I do think there are those out there that are stupidly oblivious to their surroundings, I think that the number of people that are like that, has been fairly consistent for the entire history of our culture- increasing correspondingly with the population growth. (However, I have to have to acknowledge the variable of technological influence on communication, but that is another story another day.)
My thought is that there are the same amount of people that are pissed about this kind of stuff as there always has been (sparking the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Social Equality Movements), and just as many people complaining about it. The difference, is that now, nobody knows what to do about it. They all think that they just have to deal with it, and "it is what it is." They don't know that you could all join up together and do something about it, about anything. We all just sit around and bitch about how much we hate everything, and how everything sucks, and none of us do anything about it.
In the early 1900's, young American's thought that shit sucked, and instead of joining together, they all just worked their ass off and built something out of nothing. By the 50's, the middle class was alive and strong, and the opportunities to make something out of nothing became fewer and fewer, and thus harder and harder to obtain. So then, rather than working their ass off to obtain a positive change in society for themselves, we learned to unite, and work together, and to have a single, strong voice to get things done. But now, we don't work, because we don't see value in the pay off (because the man is keeping us down, man). And we don't join together, because we are so self absorbed (thanks 80's) and selfish to care about anyone else's problems but our own.
The irony, is that with all the social media platforms that link us all together, you would think that we would figure out that all of our problems are the same fucking problems that everyone else has. And frickin do something, anything, about it.
As I sit here, and blog to nobody, as if I were making any difference myself.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Miami Sch-mmmiami
Did you know that Miami has ceased to be a city? It's true. According to Miami locals, the city has gone bankrupt and has been assumed by Dade County. The primary demographic that lives in the city has money (and lots of it) and they spend and spend, however none in that same demographic work. So somehow, this has created a huge gap, and the lack of tax dollars recirculating into the city has created a situation in which Miami has been unable to pay city bills. So politically, it is merely a place full of separate villages that exist within Dade County.
Interesting. So based on this small amount of information, an assumption can be made that poor, non-working social exploiters are equally met by rich hyperconsumers when it comes to the issues of our unsustainable economically crippled market.
Which leads down that long and windy road of all the issues that consumerism manifests itself into huge cultural problems. However in this situation, it may not be the act of consumerism itself that is harmful, but the "wrong" perceptions that Americans have towards what it is, and the consequences that arise from this type of behavior.
In a research possibility for one of my classes, I'm beginning to peer down this road to figure out what it is exactly that causes this behavior to not only happen, but to be acceptable. Boiled down to the most simple observations, there seems to be a pattern. Somewhere along the road, Americans have culturally conditioned themselves to exist within this sense of entitlement, in which we all seem to believe that we can do no wrong as long as someone else is there to clean up our messes. Unfortunately as Americans we "all" believe that there is someone else to do things for us, so nothing is actually getting done. And buying things for the sake of buying things is not only ridiculously wasteful, it is also harmful to the political and economical state that we find ourselves in.
It may be too late for Miami, but we can learn from this. We should figure out how to behave better as a society and to stop shooting ourselves in the damn foot. We cannot spend and consume without understanding the consequences. We ought to be paying better attention to ourselves and our own habits, and stop expecting others to both spoon feed us our culture and to fix our problems at the same time.
Jack Johnson says it best:
Oh but everybody thinks
That everybody knows
About everybody else
Nobody knows
Anything about themselves
Cause their all worried about everybody else
Interesting. So based on this small amount of information, an assumption can be made that poor, non-working social exploiters are equally met by rich hyperconsumers when it comes to the issues of our unsustainable economically crippled market.
Which leads down that long and windy road of all the issues that consumerism manifests itself into huge cultural problems. However in this situation, it may not be the act of consumerism itself that is harmful, but the "wrong" perceptions that Americans have towards what it is, and the consequences that arise from this type of behavior.
In a research possibility for one of my classes, I'm beginning to peer down this road to figure out what it is exactly that causes this behavior to not only happen, but to be acceptable. Boiled down to the most simple observations, there seems to be a pattern. Somewhere along the road, Americans have culturally conditioned themselves to exist within this sense of entitlement, in which we all seem to believe that we can do no wrong as long as someone else is there to clean up our messes. Unfortunately as Americans we "all" believe that there is someone else to do things for us, so nothing is actually getting done. And buying things for the sake of buying things is not only ridiculously wasteful, it is also harmful to the political and economical state that we find ourselves in.
It may be too late for Miami, but we can learn from this. We should figure out how to behave better as a society and to stop shooting ourselves in the damn foot. We cannot spend and consume without understanding the consequences. We ought to be paying better attention to ourselves and our own habits, and stop expecting others to both spoon feed us our culture and to fix our problems at the same time.
Jack Johnson says it best:
Oh but everybody thinks
That everybody knows
About everybody else
Nobody knows
Anything about themselves
Cause their all worried about everybody else
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Sunday Morning Conversation
Congress doesn't read your Facebook status updates, and they don't care even a little bit about what you are tweeting. Unfortunately, the masses tend to believe that if you write it, they will read it. This is not the case. If you are truly interested in having your elected officials hear your voice, then send them an email instead. The only people that they are actively paying attention to are those of us significantly contributing to them keeping their job$.
Also, sharing is not socialism. It is teamwork. Wanting to do things politically or economically to "help" out your fellow American citizen does not make you a socialist, it makes you a good person. We teach our children to share everything they have. But we are unwilling to put anyone else's needs above those of ourselves or our family. Even though, by doing so, we will all benefit in the not so long away long run.
Social Security. Because people exploit and abuse the system, it does not mean they system itself is bad. It means the system needs to take further preventative measures to regulate and protect the system from the bad people that are doing the exploiting and abusing. Reform = yes, shutting it down = no. Do you not remember that this system saved the lives of your grandparents and their parents? There are good hard working people that use this system properly and they should not be left behind because you are greedy.
Greedy greedy greedy greedy greedy. Stop it. Humanitarianism is not that far off from the lifestyles encouraged by most religion. Which is the backbone of the conservative ticket that is currently too involved in their jobs as politicians to consider what is best for their country.
Just sayin.....
Also, sharing is not socialism. It is teamwork. Wanting to do things politically or economically to "help" out your fellow American citizen does not make you a socialist, it makes you a good person. We teach our children to share everything they have. But we are unwilling to put anyone else's needs above those of ourselves or our family. Even though, by doing so, we will all benefit in the not so long away long run.
Social Security. Because people exploit and abuse the system, it does not mean they system itself is bad. It means the system needs to take further preventative measures to regulate and protect the system from the bad people that are doing the exploiting and abusing. Reform = yes, shutting it down = no. Do you not remember that this system saved the lives of your grandparents and their parents? There are good hard working people that use this system properly and they should not be left behind because you are greedy.
Greedy greedy greedy greedy greedy. Stop it. Humanitarianism is not that far off from the lifestyles encouraged by most religion. Which is the backbone of the conservative ticket that is currently too involved in their jobs as politicians to consider what is best for their country.
Just sayin.....
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
My New Life
For those of you who don't know, Jesse Shayne and I have left Austin. We now live in Denton. Let me tell you something about Denton: it sucks. Now, to be fair, in the 6 weeks of us living here we have only been cleaning the house or going to school/work. We did stumble upon the Denton Blues Festival last weekend and that was a nice surprise, but it wasn't enough to alleviate the fact that Denton is just not Austin.
My biggest irritation with living in this town is the overuse of one way streets, and an even more so, the obese overuse of raised medians. This is not a big city. There is absolutely no need for this type of action towards traffic control. The roads are bumpy and cracked and not even a little bit straight, yet there are million of dollars worth of medians through almost every street. Want to go to that bank over on your left-hand side? TOO BAD! First, you must continue driving for another 2-5 blocks and make an illegal U-Turn at the next light. I don't want to. If I drove a Jeep I would hop these things all over the place.
And there is no HEB here. Where the hell am I supposed to shop? They have TWO Wal-Mart stores. I think that in itself is a pretty bad sign. Fuck Wal-Mart. I've had no other options and have been inside that store more in the last few weeks than I have in the last 5 years. I lost a piece of my soul each time. My heart goes out to all of the young Vietnamese and other impoverished overworked children that enabled me to buy window blinds for under $5.
In other news, our house is finally in livable condition. The woman living here before us was apparently a degenerate alcoholic and did not clean anything for the 2 and a half years she lived here, nor did she do anything about the jungle overgrowth in the gardens and the backyard. The grass was over a foot tall in the back, and that was with the drought this summer.
So now that I am settled, please expect to see more from me here. I apologize for the lack of rants and bullshitting that I know you all look forward to hearing on a more regular basis.
My biggest irritation with living in this town is the overuse of one way streets, and an even more so, the obese overuse of raised medians. This is not a big city. There is absolutely no need for this type of action towards traffic control. The roads are bumpy and cracked and not even a little bit straight, yet there are million of dollars worth of medians through almost every street. Want to go to that bank over on your left-hand side? TOO BAD! First, you must continue driving for another 2-5 blocks and make an illegal U-Turn at the next light. I don't want to. If I drove a Jeep I would hop these things all over the place.
And there is no HEB here. Where the hell am I supposed to shop? They have TWO Wal-Mart stores. I think that in itself is a pretty bad sign. Fuck Wal-Mart. I've had no other options and have been inside that store more in the last few weeks than I have in the last 5 years. I lost a piece of my soul each time. My heart goes out to all of the young Vietnamese and other impoverished overworked children that enabled me to buy window blinds for under $5.
In other news, our house is finally in livable condition. The woman living here before us was apparently a degenerate alcoholic and did not clean anything for the 2 and a half years she lived here, nor did she do anything about the jungle overgrowth in the gardens and the backyard. The grass was over a foot tall in the back, and that was with the drought this summer.
So now that I am settled, please expect to see more from me here. I apologize for the lack of rants and bullshitting that I know you all look forward to hearing on a more regular basis.
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