Judging by the traffic on the road, everyone else had the same afterthoughts as I. That is, "Holy shit, I don't have presents for everyone yet."
This sport of last minute shopping is rated on 2 different aspects.
1) Driving skill. Points will be awarded from greatest to least following this list: parking at green lights, parking in the middle of busy intersections, hitting a parked car, cutting me off, meanderous driving, no or incorrect use of turn signal. Additional points are awarded for talking on a cell phone, or yelling at children while accomplishing your transportational goals.
2) Oblivity. From greatest to least again: hitting me with your shopping cart, swiping me with your shoulder, cutting in line in front of me, knocking down or otherwise destroying retail displays, leaving your shopping cart parked behind my car. "Combos" such as swiping me with your shopping card and tossing me into a display of beer bottles that shatter and sent me to the emergency room also land you with extra points.
Merry Christmas! Try to get enough points to get to level two! Get the power-up and win!
Grades are in, 4.00 for the semester. Thank you.
In a world with an increasing number of people and increasing interconnectedness via communications and resource acquisition and disposal, it's increasingly difficult to not affect other people. An example is when I throw trash away it affects the entire community. When I drive, the exhaust affects a world community. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the greatest polluters and by working for them I am participant in that crime. Science has further helped blur the lines between my personal freedom and a violation of yours by discovering the relationships of these connections. We know it's the carbon dioxide and methane content in the atmosphere that's causing the world to warm. We know that when we pour our motor oil into the ground it can find its way to a water supply and pollute it. In our quest for knowledge we have undermined a simple truth, that my freedom ends where your nose begins.
The U.S. school system was modeled after German schools created in the 1800's for the express purpose of producing obedient soldiers and factory workers... The German system was extremely successful in achieving its goal in Germany and was therefore copied by other countries, including the U.S. The great American tycoons and Robber Barons were big supporters of the German system in America since they wanted literate but obedient factory workers. Our schools are operated pretty much the same way today in the 1990's as they were back when Thomas Edison was kicked out for being "addled." Creativity and independent thought and action were discouraged because such traits were problematic in a war or a factory. Today these traits interfere with our cookie cutter, mass production educational system; a bureaucratic system which is unable to change itself.
It seems that these days everyone has had a jab at Myspace. But these people, so few have done anything about it. Like the weather, we talk about it inanely and no one does anything about it. I'm going to change the weather.
Why is it that in order to market some product on the Internet, we place the root "e" or "my" to it? It makes me violently angry, this poor attempt by the lay businessman to describe the expanding reality of our world by recycling old words. It's insulting to me and it should be to you. The quality of your world is only as vast as your ability to describe it, therefore by increasing your vocabulary you can have a deeper experience with reality. Or you can be like Tom and have a vocabulary much like that of a chimp and simply expand on the world by joining old monosyllabic words together. You can join the ranks of the intellectual elite and say things like "Ice cream good all the time." When saying to someone "Hey you should check out my MySpace page," it should be apparant that this dual use of "my," right next to each other, doesn't roll off the tongue. Why don't we say, "Have you seen my MyHouse?" Or MyMyApartment? Why do we have to end it there? Can't we just keep saying "My" over and over like a two year old confused about ownership? If you've used this "UI train wreck that is myspace" you're already aware of its flaws and the quality of content it brings to the net. Here's how you do something about it.
Get FireFox. Get RIP. Get Greasemonkey. Start Ripping. Install some scripts.
You're welcome.
|
|