Chin Up, Working Girls

As I have mentioned numerous times before, I really enjoy reading Working Girl’s blog. I’m not exactly in their target demographic but they really have a good thing going and I read as much to try and duplicate their success as I do out of interest in their topics. I’ll admit it, I shake my head at some of their posts but there is a generational gap between us. When they discuss the drama from the most recent episode of The Hills or the quality of Britney Spears’ new album I want to vomit. They are still the best bloggers on the net though, in my humble opinion.
But the Working Girls are sad this week. Working Girl Two has relocated and Working Girl One’s spirits are down. Separation anxiety sucks. While I know that WG1 is happy for her colleague, she still will miss having her near. While I can offer her no solace, I can give her a little reminder of her friend.
A couple of months ago I was brainstorming for ideas to increase my readership and the best idea I came up with was having a weekly guest blogger. The Working Girls were my first target. If I could get them to write an entry for me discussing the successes, failures, and aspirations for their blog, it would be a major accomplishment. So I emailed them and, for a couple of weeks, got no response. Just when I had given up hope that they would do me the honor of writing a blog for me, WG2 contacted me and said she would do it.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I said.
We traded emails discussing topics and deadlines and then one day, there it was: my own personalized WG2 blog entry. Problem was, aside from WG2, only one of my other guest bloggers had responded. I put the feelers out to campus clubs and other bloggers and only Working Girl and Two Minutes for Blogging had replied.
So I stashed the entries away. I honestly figured I would never have the opportunity to use either. Then I read WG1’s post yesterday. She’s got the blues over WG2’s relocation and can only find comfort in her boyfriend’s “nook.” I don’t want to know. So I thought that maybe a trip down memory lane would help. A little reminder of WG2. Kind of like a lost episode of The Hills or Cashmere Mafia.
So here you are WG1, chin up! And WG2, out there in the Windy City, congratulations and thanks again………

I have to first point out that when the Invisible Student asked WG1 and I to guest post on his blog that we were ecstatic. I mean, this is our very first guest blog post (how exciting is that!). And then he asked us to write about our success with Working Girl. Which is still weird for me to say. We are successful. We have a successful blog. When we started the blog, I thought we could get our friends and family to read it for sure. But beyond that, I don't know if I had that many expectations. For you to fully understand, I think we need to start at the beginning.

Working Girl One and I met in college. And I don't think if you had met either one of us when we were little, wide-eyed freshman that either of us could have guessed where we would be 5 years from then. That we would have a blog about women in the workplace. In fact, I think if you had met us on our first day of classes back in 2003 that you would have been surprised if we would be able to graduate much less had been able to pull this blog together.

As fate would have it, WG1 and I had two classes together first semester of freshman year – religion and French. I remember seeing WG1 on our first day of classes and thinking that she must have been one of those girls in high school that was so popular and cool (little did I know that she was a huge nerd bomb). Being the bold little freshman I was, I asked WG1 to sit with me in religion class one day. Unfortunately, I had sat in the front row. And forevermore we had to sit in the front row of that class. I'm not lying when I say we both fell asleep in it (since it was at 9 AM and really, really, really boring).
From that day on, we became best "class friends". So much so that in French class, our professor could barely tell us apart. But we thankfully snagged back row seats in that class (because after many beer bongs, my brain capacity had shrunk to that of a pea and the only words I knew were 'oui' and 'vrai'). WG1 and I hung out with different groups of friends, but we always managed to connect somehow. Since we had different majors, we didn't have many classes together anymore, but we did like dorky activities like being tour guides, campus activities like going to see the Knicks, and eventually we ended up being editors at our university's newspaper.

The idea for Working Girl actually stemmed out of an idea we had for a magazine for young women between the ages of 18 and 25 – a market we thought hadn't really been tapped into. See girls in their teens and tweens have Seventeen. And girls in their 20's and 30's have Cosmopolitan. But there is really no in-between magazine. Something that caters to girls who need guidance with college, their career, finding internships, etc. But since we are only in our early 20's, we didn't really have the resources (or experience) to start our own print magazine and voila Working Girl was born.

In its early stages, Working Girl was really just the two of us writing and our dads reading it. But I think what I really attribute our success to getting the word out. Being two girls in the marketing world, we both know how important word of mouth is! When we started the blog, we sent around an e-mail to all our friends and family asking them to read it on a daily basis. We started a Facebook group dedicated to our blog. We started a MySpace page (which is embarrassing sparse).

As more and more people began to read our blog, which we tracked by using Google Analytics, we decided we needed a professional designer to take on our website. WG1 worked closely with Delicious Design Studio and really, I don't think we would be as successful as we are today without Jess's design. Because without her design, I doubt that we would have been chosen as a Blog of Note. Or been featured in a South African magazine Chew, or gotten any of our blogger appointed awards!

Putting on a professional face while promoting our blog is what I really attribute to our success – that and our commitment to really wanting to reach out to an audience we think gets overlooked – the girls who are about to graduate from college and the twenty-something's out there in the trenches working the daily grind.

Our goal with Working Girl has been the same since the beginning. Of course we want to moan and groan about work, but we also want to help others. We like answering questions that our readers have about work and co-workers and horrible bosses. We like being able to bring knowledge and tidbits of information that you might not be able to find anywhere else.

When the Invisible Student asked us to write this post, he also asked us as if we saw ourselves as role models. Do I think of myself as a role model? Not yet. But it is something I would love to add to my resume.

I Hear You Talking, but You Are Not Saying Anything

Is there a better topic than the useless art of small talk to make my triumphant return to the blogosphere? I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks due to the lack of anything relevant enough to say. Sure, I could have made up some quasi interesting topic, like politics or the weather, to talk about but who cares, right?
Nothing drives me crazier than people who talk just for the sake of talking. Please have something to say. Weather, days of the week and neighborhood, family or celebrity gossip are not things that need to be discussed. If I need to see what the weather is like I will look out the damn window. I hate when people tell me that it’s nice outside or that it’s raining. Really, is that what that water falling from the sky is? I had no idea. Thanks for filling me in.
What’s even better is when I’m wearing a coat and gloves because it’s winter and someone comes along and says, “It’s cold!”
Are you serious? It’s cold? I’m glad I have this coat and these gloves on because I would have been screwed otherwise. I really hate it when people state the obvious. Can you tell?
My mother is the queen of reminding me what day it is. I could set my watch to her “Tomorrow is ____day” each night before she goes to bed. If that isn’t bad enough, each morning she reminds me that, “Today is another day.”
Thanks for the pearls of wisdom, Mom.
My stepfather is another one. Each day when I arrive home from school he tells me, “You made it home.”
Is that where I am? That would explain me having a key to the door and all my stuff being here. I know what you are thinking, that he’s just welcoming me. I would like to think that but the tone in his voice is an informative one. It’s as if he believes that unless he tells me where I am, I’ll never figure it out.
I will admit that I am not the easiest person to talk to. Small talk just irks me to death, I don’t have a ton of friends (shocker, right?), and my parents and I just have different interests and I’m too impatient to slow down and explain things to them. When they try to engage me in subjects I will discuss, my impatience leads to me blowing them off. I guess that makes me the asshole. That is probably why they keep trying small talk. They probably think that if they fire enough topics at me, eventually I will respond. But how do you respond to “Today is another day.”?
That just doesn’t lend itself to in-depth conversation. My default response is, “Yes it is, let’s hope it’s a good one.”
Once again, not exactly riveting, edge of your seat conversation.
I know I’m probably in the minority when it comes to this. Most people a far more social than I. It’s funny, I usually blame my parents’ lack of conversational skills on the fact that they really don’t interact with anyone other than themselves. Perhaps if they got out of the house every now and then they might pick up some better chat habits.
Maybe I should follow my own advice.

Stereotypes: HaHa or Hurtful?

If you watch television at all you have undoubtedly realized that advertisers and media buyers have product placement down to a science. Shows geared toward a male or female audience tend to feature commercials selling products that are specific for each respective gender.
If you’re a man and you watch Monday Night Football or anything on Spike, you’ve probably seen countless beer commercials for Budweiser or Miller Lite. If its instant animal attraction and a guaranteed one night stand you seek, then by now you know that Axe body spray is the product for you. Perhaps you’ve added a few extra pounds over the years and need to shed them quickly so you can squeeze back into that banana hammock you wore back in the 80‘s. If so, there are countless fat burning products as well as exercise gimmicks promising overnight six pack abs.
For the women tuning into to Oprah and Grey’s Anatomy, you’re well versed on the benefits of Tampax Pearl, winged maxis or Secret deodorant, which is strong enough for a man, but made for a woman. Women’s programming is also more likely to advertise some Nicholas Sparks tearjerker or Julia Roberts romcom than Transporter 3 or the most recent reboot of Friday the 13th. For the seniors tuning into the Hallmark channel or some Dick Van Dyke movie of the week, surely you know that AARP offers you specialized car insurance and that Wilford Brimley pronounces diabetes, “diabetus.”
But for as each commercial that is well placed and reaches it’s target audience, there is another that is born of some antiquated stereotype. Why are baby diapers and household cleaning products still advertised primarily during women’s programming? Same for men’s programming with power tools and motor oil. As I sat watching The Ultimate Fighter last Wednesday night it became painfully obvious that advertisers believe that only video gaming couch potatoes watch Spike at ten o’clock at night. One hour long broadcast featured ads for Gears of War, Call to Duty on top of numerous other wrestling and street racing games.
Watch TV during the day and you will see numerous ads for commuter colleges like Education America and ITT Tech. Apparently, if you are lazy enough to be watching television on a Wednesday afternoon in stead of working, you are too lazy to attend a four year school and get a career instead of just a job. Daytime programming is also filled with ads for check cashing services and work from home scams. Advertising executives must really think that people at home during the week are losers.
I’ve always believed that stereotypes were somewhat based in reality. If you pull up to a Camaro or Trans Am at a stoplight and there is some 80s heavy metal song blaring from the speakers, the driver is most likely a white male. Hell, its probably me. If you go to a Cher concert and see a bunch of men who aren’t being dragged along by their noses by their wives, they are probably gay. Finally, if you’re at the movie theater watching a horror flick and there is a woman screaming at the top of her lungs whenever something even remotely creepy happens, its probably a black woman. Sorry, its all true. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Stereotypes, although funny sometimes, can be offensive too. Why are cleaning products advertised to women or power tools to men? I actually do quite a bit of cleaning and laundry around the house and Tina is the Mrs. Fixit of the family. Does watching sports make me obligated to sit around and play video games? I don’t even own a gaming system. If I’m not mistaken, Logo is the name of the network for gay people. Would they be offended if pharmaceutical companies were advertising an AIDS prevention pill or Birkenstocks? I imagine so. What if every other add on BET were for a bail bondsman or overnight paternity tests? That would be highly offensive.
I guess my point is that advertisers should be careful when painting their target market with the same brush. Do women still do most of the cleaning around the house? I don’t know but my guess would be yes. Maybe it isn’t even that they do the cleaning though. Perhaps the commercials are aimed at them because they do most of the shopping. Who knows.
Either way, as fun as playing with stereotypes can be, it can be equally as offensive.

I'm Sick and it Sucks!

I’ve taken a few days off from posting, not for lack of something to say, but because I’ve comedown with a mild cold/flu. It started on Sunday when I just felt fatigued all day. I thought nothing of it since that is usually how I feel on days after tailgating. On Monday it was worse, no symptoms, just fatigue. When I woke up Tuesday morning though my throat was sore and my head hurt, crap. It has gotten progressively worse ever since and today I feel like microwave poo. Surprisingly I was able to drag myself to school yesterday.
I’ve got an idea for a blog entry in my head but I can’t put it down in comprehendible form with my head so stuffy. You see, my process for blogging relies on many external factors. Daily experiences and interactions make up most of my ideas. I tried to go down the political road but it just wasn’t natural for me and I felt that I was being dishonest to not only myself, but to those of you who take the time to read my musings. If you are going to show me the honor of taking the time to read my blog, the least I can do is be honest.
So with that said, I ask you to be patient with me. Hopefully I will start feeling better here soon without having to go to the doctor. I’ve got entries on stereotypes and Thanksgiving in the works as well as whatever else may pop into my mentholated brain over the next few days. Have a nice weekend.

Toilet Bowl Promises

As I sat in the stands of FIU Stadium this past Saturday watching the Golden Panthers rally past Arkansas State, my head screamed at me for not keeping myself properly hydrated while tailgating all afternoon. It reminded me of all the nights I’ve spent hugging the toilet, cursing myself and promising God and anyone else who might be tuning in that I would never drink again.
You see, I approach college football tailgating with a vigor unlike anything else. The Xterra gets packed on Friday night and Tina and I spend most of the evening in the kitchen preparing Saturday’s feast. Usually I make my own special variety of wings in three flavors--hot, hot w/minced garlic, and extra hot--and Tina makes something fancy and healthy. For Arkansas State she made some turkey bacon club wraps and festive bean dip while I took the week off from making wings and just brought hotdogs. Of course, what tailgate would be complete without a cooler full of beer?
At my age, I’ve learned to become a smarter drinker, not only for the sake of others around me, but for my own sake as well. As I down beer after beer, I mix in a bottle of water here and there. Usually, I try to keep the ratio at a 3 beers to 1 bottle of water minimum. This not only prevents me from getting embarrassingly drunk, but it also helps to quell any potential hangover. Unfortunately, this past Saturday I forgot to keep up with the water intake.
I was fine up until halftime. Tina, our friends and I were in the student section chanting, cheering, romping and stomping. We went crazy when Paul McCall connected with T.Y. for an 84 yard catch and run play and booed when ASU scored. After the half was an entirely different story. Seeing that we’re all a bit older than the average student, we decided the atmosphere in the student section was a bit too frenzied for our taste and relocated to the visitors seating. Apparently, someone forgot to tell the ASU faithful that there was a game.
That was when the exhaustion set in. I suddenly felt like I had gone a week without sleep. My head started hurting and my legs were nowhere to be found. It wasn’t an early onset hangover, this was different. I chased down a soda vendor like he owed me money and bought a Powerade. After gulping that down I felt better, briefly. A good game was being played between two teams fighting for third place in the conference and a potential bowl game and all I could do was stare at my feet: my eyes couldn’t take the lights. I didn’t miss the wide receiver end around-fumble-option-pass to end the game, though.
I felt so bad that I couldn’t help but think back to the night that some friends and I did eight shots of Jagermeister, each. That night cost me about two days worth of toilet bowl promises, including a promise to never do Jager shots again, a promise I have kept to this day. Tina dragged me to a friend of hers divorce party once, and I proceeded to drink margaritas like a fish drinks water. There were many promises made that night, too. For my 34th birthday, when it seemed like everyone inside Buffalo Wild Wings bought me a shot, I promised myself that I would never tell my boss that I would come in on my day off again, especially when that day off falls on the day after my birthday.
Saturday night wasn’t nearly as bad as any of those times. The way I felt was caused more by exhaustion and dehydration than it was excess alcohol intake. When we made it back to the parking lot following the game I was able to down a few bottles of water and I felt better almost instantly. Although the exhaustion was still there, the headache went away once I got some H2O in me. Unfortunately I found that someone had stolen our mini-grill. There were no toilet bowl promises to be made that night though, only celebration of another Golden Panther victory, the fourth of the season so far. Not bad for a team projected as the worst in the country at the start of the season.

Quality Programming

Has there ever been a better family show than Friday Night Lights? By family show I don’t mean a show that has a happy, positive message every time and where the kids in the show always make the right decision and say “yes, sir,” and “no, ma’am” all the time. Those are unrealistic if you ask me. A family show in my mind should offer something for everyone in the family and should be somewhat based in the real world.
FNL is all of those things. For those of you unfamiliar with it, the show follows the Taylor family, made up of Eric, Tammy and Julie. Eric is the father/husband and coach of the local high school football team in a football crazy town. Tammy is the mother/wife who happens to be the principal at the high school at which her husband coaches. As you can imagine, this causes some friction. Julie is the daughter who is also a student at the high school at which her dad is the coach and mom is the principal.
Tina and I both grew up watching shows like Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven. She even still likes to watch 7th Heaven. Those are all great shows will valuable lessons in making the right decisions, being nice to everybody, the power of prayer, etc. But they aren’t very realistic, in my opinion. In those shows, everything always works out in the end. Little Suzy gets healed of her mystery illness, mommy and daddy work through their problems and a mysterious stranger who turns out to be a personification of God shows up with the answer for any other issue. In the real world, every cloud does not have a silver lining.
FNL has its feet on the ground when it comes to the issues facing families today. The kids drink at their parties, have sex without the good little angel that looks a lot like Dad standing on their shoulder telling them they shouldn’t be doing it and get into all kinds of other trouble. When Buddy Garrity, the slimy football booster who is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the Panthers win, cheated on his wife with his secretary, there was no reconciliation, only divorce. In the shows very first episode Jason Street, the school’s all-world quarterback, was paralyzed making a tackle. There was no miracle cure for him. No Michael Landon, Della Reese or Roma Downey showing up with a magic tough or miracle cure.
Matt Saracen, the backup QB who was thrust into the spotlight following Street’s injury, has more on his plate then Laura Ingalls ever could have dealt with. His father is deployed in Iraq and he has an absentee mother. While holding down a job at Tasty Freeze (television’s equivalent to Dairy Queen), managing his studies and leading his team to state, he also tends to his grandmother. He has to deal with her as she goes through the early stages of Alzheimer’s. This entails consistent bickering with the insurance company over in-home care and medication costs as well as making sure she doesn’t burn the house down or wander of in the middle of the night.
Without rehashing the entire series, let me just say that if Tina and I had kids, especially teenagers, this is the show we would want them to watch on a family night, if such things even exist anymore. It truly does offer something for everyone. For the boys, there is not only the fact that the show is written around football, but the girls in the show are all gorgeous. There is also a lot of mushy teenage relationship drama for the girls, as well as some cute boys, or so Tina says. For mom and dad, there some very realistic relationship tension between Tammy and Eric Taylor. They have to deal with money worries, juggling work and a newborn child, as well as worrying about their teenage daughter dating the team’s star QB.
On top of all that stuff, the stories do not always have a happy ending, much like life itself. I think it is important for a show that deals with the issues that FNL does to show that they don’t always end with a puppy dog and cotton candy result. I encourage anyone in search of a good family program to check out Friday Night Lights. The only problem is you may have to search for it. It has fallen victim to NBC’s time slot shuffle. Its first season it was on Tuesday nights, last season it was moved to Fridays, and this season it has been moved to Wednesdays on the Direct TV channel where it will remain until January, when it will return to NBC. Check it out.

I Hear a Memory

Today’s post was sent to me through some act of fate. As I was driving to school today, the cheesy morning radio show I was listening to announced celebrity birthdays and among them was The Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio. Shortly after that I grew weary of the same old talk show shtick and began channeling surfing. A few scans down that proverbial dial I caught Bananarama’s hit ditty, Cruel Summer, which happened to be featured in TKK. Fate had sent me an idea.




Upon hearing the first few musical notes my mind wandered back to the summer of 84, which would have been the summer between 7th and 8th grade for me. I spent that summer hanging out at Lake Worth beach with my childhood best friend Danny, each of us trying to accumulate as many girls’ phone numbers as we could. That got me thinking about other songs from movies of that era, songs like Danger Zone from Top Gun and Glory of Love from Karate Kid Part II. Both of those movies came out in the summer of 86, when I was in New York. That was a great summer vacation. I met some great friends that summer: friends who I would keep in touch with for years. I even had my first true summer fling in the summer of 86, Lisa was her name and she was the first girl I ever French kissed.



My point is that scientists would tell you that scent is the sense that is most closely tied to memories. I beg to differ. Nothing takes me back in time like music. When I get a whiff of a familiar scent it often grabs my attention but rarely do I recall exactly where I know the scent from. A familiar song, on the other hand, takes me directly to a place or moment in time, especially when I can associate that song with something visual, like a movie.
One of the songs I have as a ring tone on my phone is Moving in Stereo by The Cars. Any guys reading this post are probably cracking a devilish smile on their faces right now. The bass line for that song immediately brings to mind the famous Phoebe Cates bikini scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Yummy. I remember being in 6th grade when that movie came out. Every guy, including me, was wearing checkerboard Vans and saying, “Hey bud, let’s party!”



Music, not smell, is the gas that fuels my time machine as it drives down memory lane. How far I go depends on the CD I choose to slide into the player. So happy birthday Ralph Macchio! Thanks for guiding today’s tour through the summer of 84. You’re the best!

Time is of the Essence

One of the major differences I have noticed between my generation and the younger generation of the students that surround me not only at school but in jobs I’ve had in the past is a lack of respect for rules and/or authority. Accompanying this lack of respect is also a lack of personal accountability. There is a tendency among a portion of today’s youth to point fingers and deflect blame. It is similar to today’s athletes. They can’t wait to pound their chests and dance when they do the simplest of things but when they mess up, it’s because of a referee or a blown assignment by a teammate, etc..
I don’t need to continue to rehash my work experience but just to remind you, my previous college degree is in Marketing Management and my work experience lies primarily in various levels of retail, from a mere sales associate up to low level management. It is because of my experiences in retail that I have decided to drop everything and return to school. Because of the night and weekend hours, retail jobs are perfect for a college student needing extra cash flow and over the years I’ve worked with hundreds of them. Some of them have been hardworking and punctual. Most though, were lazy and unreliable.
I bring this topic up because my beloved Working Girls( http://www.work-girl.blogspot.com/ )had a post on their blog last week in which one of their bosses had decided to suddenly start enforcing attendance and punctuality policies and went about it by standing at the elevator with a stopwatch greeting employees. Although I applaud the decision to enforce punctuality, after all, if they can’t trust you to do something as simple as look at a clock and be on time, how can they trust you with difficult tasks, their methods leave a lot to be desired. You can’t be lax on policy day after day, week after week and month after month then suddenly crack the whip overnight. Especially by doing something as childish as waiting by the door with a watch.
Some of the responses that Working Girl received were shocking to me, especially considering that they were coming from adults in the professional world. A few people stated that, as long as you are doing your job, no one should care if you arrive late or leave early. To those people I offer this response, getting to work on time and completing your work day IS part of your job. If you are not doing so, guess what? You are not doing your job. Another responder asked why they should have to be on their boss’ schedule. Why? Because they are THE BOSS! That’s why. You do what they say, not the other way around.
There just seems to be this sense of entitlement with today’s youth. The same people that can’t be on time, leave early or call in sick are the same ones who threaten to quit when they are reviewed and don’t get a raise. I used to work with a kid working his way through college who would do a very minimal amount of work and when he was prodded to do more he would say something to the effect that he only got paid $8 per hour so he only did what he felt was $8 worth of work per hour. If the company wanted more work out of him, they should give him a raise. That was the mentality that many of his peers shared. They were waiting for the company to give them raises rather than earning them. I’m sure you are familiar with the saying, dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Well, that could easily be changed to, work for the wage you want, not the wage you have.
To that same effect, many of the working students that could never be on time or called in sick for every home football game or college night at the club were the same ones asking for more hours during school breaks. It just made me shake my head. A few more of my personal favorites were the people who were already late that would enter the building with breakfast, lunch or dinner, clock in and then proceed to the break room and eat while on the clock. I’m also rather fond of the women who arrive at work late and get to their desks and begin putting on their makeup. Makeup is as much a part of getting dressed as putting on socks and shoes: it should be done at home, on your time, not on our dime.
The biggest frustration was that, for many of these companies, the cost of hiring and training employees is too high to justify the termination of slackers like this. As easy as it is to find another student willing to work for low wages, consistently turning them over and training a new crop isn't cost effective so the companies put up with it and delegate the work to other, more reliable workers which, in a sense, punishes those people for being good workers. That is what drove me way. From the perspective of a sales associate, it was frustrating to have to pick up the slack of these people. I came to work on time and did my job well, why should I have had to do their jobs too? From the view of a manager it was an ongoing battle to try and have a reliable staff yet have to fight tooth and nail with Human Resources to terminate worthless individuals. Surely the negative impact they have on productivity offsets the cost of training replacements.
I don’t know where the blame lies. Whether it’s a parenting thing or because of the fact that everything is an excuse nowadays. There is a disorder and subsequent narcotic for every damn thing in the world today. If a kid daydreams he’s ADD and if he fidgets while he daydreams he’s ADHD and written a scrip for mind numbing drugs and given a free pass the rest of his life. In my day the kid was just a daydreamer who drank too much Kool-Aid and needed to come down from his sugar high.
What scares me the most about this trend is that I always thought that kids grew out of it once they entered the professional world. College kids are supposed to be flaky and uninterested, it’s part of the whole experience. But when I saw the responses over at Working Girl I realized that it may not just be a college thing, its quite possibly an epidemic.

TMI

How much personal information do you share with friends, family or simple acquaintances? I ask because things are often quiet around the house because Tina and I are fairly conscious about information that we share. We have to be. Nothing is sacred to my stepfather and sometimes I suspect that my mother has a hard time keeping things to herself as well.
It is very upsetting to Tina and I to share personal experiences with my parents, whether it be our financial worries, illnesses or issues in the workplace, only to be questioned about it by other, more removed family members or even the neighbors, who we don’t know. It has happened before and would continue to happen if she and I hadn’t just decided to clam up and stop sharing. That makes things awkward around the house though because we just don’t do small talk.
Luckily for my parents, they have my sister, the Queen of the drama queens. She doesn’t mind sharing her and her husband’s personal matters either. As a matter of fact, I think she discusses their personal issues with my parents more than she discusses them with John, her husband. It is great that she has an outlet for her frustrations but I think the reason that she continues to have the same problems is because she discusses them with everyone but the person she needs to.
If it isn’t bad enough that she shares her marital affairs with other people, once my stepfather gets off the phone with my sister, he can’t wait to share whatever she has told him with anyone who will listen. The moment he hangs up the phone with her he either starts telling us about it or picks up the phone and starts calling other family members. Telling family may not be that bad but he doesn’t stop there. I’ve heard him telling the neighbors and just last week he was on the phone with a doctor’s office trying to schedule an appointment for a colonoscopy (I’ll get to that in a minute) and he was telling the receptionist about it. I can’t explain why he does it but it would piss me off to no end if I found out that he was spreading personal information that Tina and I had given him around like that.
We are just naturally suspicious people though. Tina thinks that the people who put those little sports stickers with their kid’s name and number are stupid. There are too many perverts out there to just advertise your kid’s names like that. We shred any and all mail with our names on it whereas my parents just throw it away without even so much a tearing it up.
Now on to the colonoscopy. Right up there on my list of things not to base a conversation on, along with personal information and small talk, is bodily functions. I don’t want to hear about bowel movements and menstrual flow. Keep it to yourself. It might be natural but that doesn’t make it any less gross or inappropriate.
Thursday was the day of the big event so my step dad had to spend Wednesday drinking all kinds of stuff to “clean him out.” I got to hear all about it, too. As I was making my gourmet lunch, a grilled cheese sandwich, he started telling me what the medication was for, as if the boldly printed Bowel Preparation Kit on the box wasn’t descriptive enough. A little while later, after I had retired to my room to escape his “noises” and read, he came to my door to tell me that he thought the medication was starting to work and if I needed him he would be on the pot.
That afternoon, when my mother got home from work, she asked me how many times he had moved his bowels that day. At that point I had had enough and told her that his movements were personal and not appropriate conversational pieces. That was when he yelled, from the comfort of the toilet, for her to come and say hi to him. To which she responded by walking towards the bathroom asking him how much he had shit so far that day. What is wrong with people?
There is a such thing as Too Much Information, you know.

Who's Ahead in the Race?

As much as I hate the idea of politicizing my blog, I do want my blog to be relevant and to have more readers. In order to do that, it is necessary for me do discuss issues that are current and topical and what is more topical right now than politics? I’ve already discussed where I stand on the issues, mostly in the center to be honest, so I won’t rehash that. What I will do though is walk right up to the biggest white elephant in the room, the one that some are talking about but few with any level of controversial honesty, and punch it square in the face. Obviously I am talking about race. Good old black versus white, good versus evil, Apollo Creed versus Rocky Balboa, Rocky Marciano versus Joe Louis, Tiger Woods versus Fuzzy Zoeller, Obama versus McCain.
Anyone out there saying that race isn’t playing much of a factor in this year’s election is a fool. As sad as it is, there will be white voters who haven’t been to the polls in decades crawling out from under their rocks nationwide to vote this year. Will they be voting in favor of McCain’s healthcare package or Obama’s promise to improve America’s educational system? No! They will be voting because they don’t want a black man in the White House. If you went up to any of them and ask them to discuss the issues they wouldn’t have a clue, which is sad. Unfortunately you wouldn’t be able to identify them because they would never have the courage to say aloud that they are voting strictly on race.
Although they will be outnumbered at the polls by the white racist voters, only because they are in the minority of the population, there are going to be record setting numbers of black voters at the polls this year, too. Just like their white counterparts, they will be voting solely based on skin color. Only they will be voting for Obama.
The funny thing about the white voters not voting for the black guy is that most of those people will come from the lower middle class and below, the classes most likely to be helped by Barack Obama. Voting for Obama would be more beneficial to them but who cares about small things like public programs or economic and foreign policy? But would voting for Obama make more sense for them? The middle and lower class are the ones at risk of losing jobs to the immigrants that the Democratic Party will continue to allow into the country. Once again, who cares about issues, right? As long as we keep the black guy, or the white guy, depending on which side you’re on, out of the White House.
What is at risk for the country is increased and widespread racial tension. Right now the polls have Barack Obama way ahead. But what if those polls are influenced by white guilt? How many white people are telling pollsters that they are voting for Obama because they fear being labeled a racist? Seems silly but tell me that, if you are a white reader, you haven’t been guilty of seeing a black person on TV saying that they are voting for Obama and thinking that they’re only voting for him because he is black. I’ll admit it, I’m guilty. It’s the nature of the beast. Because of that I would be hesitant to tell someone that I intend to vote for John McCain (I still haven’t made up my mind, btw).
Imagine CNN declaring McCain the winner after polls had Obama ahead by more than 10 points. Chaos would ensue. The reaction within parts of the white community would be similar. Just yesterday the ATF arrested two skinheads who were plotting to shoot up a black school and then target Barack Obama if he were elected. These criminal masterminds were going to drive towards Obama shooting at him out the window. Good luck with that plan, jackasses. But if any of these mentally challenged white supremacy groups, ones that are a bit more organized, were successful in assassinating Obama? Yes, chaos. If the GOP is holding some ace up their sleeve and reveals, post Obama election, that they have proof that he is not an American citizen and move to impeach, you guessed it, chaos. I think that whole citizenship issue is just the GOP grasping at straws in order to save a very poorly run campaign.
Personally, I hope that the majority of the voters this year are making an informed decision based on careful research and a close examination of the candidates’ respective platforms. Regardless of who wins or loses there is going to be a lot of unhappy people on November 5th. Let’s just help that cooler heads prevail and we move forward as a nation united, not divided.

Where's My New House?

I was watching Extreme Home Makeover last night like I normally do on Sunday evening. My wife, being an interior designer, loves to see what they do to the homes. We’ve even gotten my mother into watching it, much to my stepfather’s dismay. Once you get past the cheesiness of Ty Pennington and his crew, the show isn’t half bad. I am quite sure that none of them spend as much time on the construction site as the network would like us to believe though. Most likely scenario is that they shoot their little construction scenes and then go hang out in the air conditioned trailers while the grunts do the actual work.
Some of the rooms they do for the kids on the show are really cool even if they are a bit non-functional. Last night they built a kid a room that looked like the deck of a pirate ship. Pretty cool but if the kid is anything like I was as a kid he’ll grow out of his pirate phase in a few months and be stuck with a room that everyone but him thinks is cool. But hey, at least he’ll have a new flat screen TV to watch in his pirate room. Every room they make gets a new flat screen.
The stories are always touching, too. Last night the focus was on a little boy named Job who had leukemia as a child which led to numerous other health issues. Because of the focus on the child, the family home became a bit run down and dilapidated and was deemed uninhabitable. The house was overrun with mold, making it impossible for Job to stay there due to the double lung transplant he had received. The community stepped up and were paying for the family to live in a rental property.
Speaking of the community, the EHM crew went to the local hospital where Job went through his treatments and surgeries. They shot a little video in which the other children with other vicious medical afflictions said a little bit. They even had Job’s older sister’s favorite Christian singer sing a song live from the hospital All of this was shown via webcam to the family who had been sent away on vacation while the work on their house was completed.
This is about the point where the heartless republican in me came to life. As I was watching all the other kids with life-threatening illnesses tell their stories and reminisce about Job’s time in the hospital with them, I couldn’t help wonder how they felt about all of this. How do you tell a kid going through a horrible illness that another kid with a horrible illness is more deserving of the world’s philanthropy? All I could think of while watching it was the kids asking their parents if they were getting a new house, too. Can the parents explain it to the kid? Honestly, why should they even have to?
Maybe ABC should rethink the idea of announcing their plans to the world, especially when it comes to children with life threatening diseases. When they build a house that is in many ways exclusive to a child who is by all means special but in no way alone in his plight, they are sending a message of hope to children who may not have any. It is heartbreaking to think of kids who have yet to experience life but are already dealing with their own mortality. Job’s story was touching but I would be willing to bet that each and every one of the other kids in that hospital or in hospitals around the country have touching stories too.
I think it is commendable when ABC builds a new community center for a family that takes in foster children or kids who have been victims of various kinds of abuse. Those kind of things help many more people while excluding fewer. What ABC should try to avoid doing though is sending the message that one child’s life is more important than another’s, which is what I think they have done on more than one occasion. As much as I hate to say it, if you can’t help everybody, you shouldn’t help anybody.

Ode to the Candidates

In honor of the fact that I hate election time more and more each passing day, much like the growing animosity I have for poets who just can’t spit out their feelings in comprehendible prose, I have combined the two things over which I am losing both hair and sleep into one blog entry.
For those of you who have absolutely zero reading comprehension and find my poem as difficult as I find Edmund Spenser and Ezra Pound to understand, allow me to summarize: I hate politics and politicians. None of them are trustworthy, no matter what they say. I get tired of the fact that, every four years, none of the candidates can tell you what they are going to do. They only seem to be able to tell you what their opponent can’t do.
Senator McCain, I want to hear your stance on stem cell research, not that Barack Obama once got a speeding ticket or pooped in his diaper when he was six months old. Senator Obama, can you tell me your plan for the economy or are you only going to tell me that Senator McCain is old and that he pooped in his diaper last week?
Address the issues people. For Christ’s sake, address the issues.
Enjoy this poem, it is meant to make you both think and laugh, not get angry.

Ode to the Candidates

Age or experience to me matter not:
Tis the issues that shall earn my vote.
Adultery, race, disability or awards begot;
None of these of which do I take note.

Doest thou believe in a woman’s right to choose?
For I believe the choice is hers to make,
If against her will her dignity she did lose,
Or due to health she thinks for the child’s sake.

Speaking of health, how do you so lean?
Should the government pay at the risk of taxes high?
Or should I lose the benefits of which my boss had to seen,
And sickly, poor and uninsured shall I die?

Evenly will you charge society a tax?
And a flat rate choose to let Congress pass.
Or on the rich or poor will you be lax?
Until there no longer is a middle class.

My love, my life and property will you let me defend?
By maintaining my right to own a gun
Or is my right to bear arms nearing its end?
At which point it is the criminals who have won.

About the economy, how do you plan to proceed?
Please don’t roll the dice and hope for mere blind luck.
For even I know a solid plan is what we need,
Or the repo man might come and take my truck.

The borders? Do you plan to leave them open?
Letting any and all continue to arrive.
Allowing cheap laborers to continuously come in,
And take the jobs for which born Americans may strive.

Terrorists! Terrorists! Terrorists!
Please tell me you have a strategy to eradicate
Those who cheer our demise with tight clenched fists
And kill our innocents out of misguided religious hate.

The War! The War! The War!
Will it end or will it drag on?
It’s time to bring the troops home from afar,
And allow a mother to lay her eyes on an unfamiliar son.

Hussein! Hussein! Hussein!
A moniker that reminds the world of evil
But is a man made a person by his name?
Is every man a pervert that shares the name Bill?

Abuse! Abuse! Abuse!
That is what Sarah Palin did with her elected power.
I hope to be as much or even more so amused
When you break your neck falling off that ivory tower.

When you enter the booth choose carefully who you elect
Vote based on the facts and not on television smears
The wrong vote and this country could end up wrecked
And there is nothing we can do about it for another four long years.

Stop the Insanity!

I stopped making sports posts for two reasons. One of them being because I don’t really want to limit this blog to stuff that is only relevant to people at FIU. I would prefer to have a broader reader base than that. Mainly I stopped posting about sports though because, like most sports fans, I am superstitious. About the same time I stopped posting sports related blog entries, the football team started winning. They got their same victory about the same time that the men’s soccer team got theirs and the volleyball team got their first conference win. Since that post the volleyball team continues to roll and both the soccer squads have notched a few victories. The football team went to Denton, Texas and put a whooping on UNT.
So I stopped posting about sports, not out of laziness or a lack of desire to post about sports, believe me. Besides the wins we’ve gotten, some of the stuff I’ve been reading on college football message boards has had me chomping at the bit to post. Let me get the basics out of the way first.
Is there anyone still questioning Paul McCall as the starting QB for this team? Paul has looked great now the he is getting more time to set up and check down to his second and third pass options. I would like to see fewer dropped passes from the receivers though.
Next, how fast is T.Y. Hilton? Damn! That guy can fly. I don’t know that “Goodbye” is an adequate nickname for him. Perhaps it should just be T.Y. “Damn that guy is fast” Hilton. He’s got good hands too. Normally it’s the sure handed receivers are the slow ones and the burners are the guys who couldn’t catch a cold.
Finally, the biggest difference I see between this team and the team that lost its first two games is confidence. This team knows that it has talent and can win games. Even when they went down 13-0 in the first quarter to Troy, they didn’t quit. Winning can do that to you. This team may only lose one more game the rest of this season.
Now that I’ve gotten that out, let me address you insane people. Once the Panthers won a couple of games I started reading message board posts with people talking about a conference championship and subsequent bowl game. Hold on a moment people. We beat three bad teams. Yes, I know that we beat Toledo and then Toledo beat Michigan but guess what? Michigan isn’t a good team either. Rich Rodriguez is installing an offensive system without the proper tools right now. UNT is in the same position FIU has been in for the past two seasons, only they aren’t in a talent hotbed like Miami and they don’t have a recruiter like MC there either. MTSU is the best of the three teams that we beat but they have personnel issues right now.
It is great to be winning and hopefully the stands will begin to fill a bit more with each win but don’t make those New Orleans reservations just yet. We still have two of the better teams in the conference remaining in Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette, not to mention FAU, who I still think is better than their 2-5 record indicates. Two losses in any of those three games leaves us at 6-6, providing we win the games we should win against Louisiana-Monroe and Western Kentucky. We don’t want to overlook those teams the way that Toledo obviously overlooked us.
If we win two of those three games and end up at 7-5, a bowl game is still a long shot. Yes, the Sun Belt conference does have more bowl tie-ins than just the New Orleans bowl but those aren’t guaranteed. The other bowls have other teams to choose from before falling back to the Sun Belt teams and FIU and its young tradition and poor attendance record isn’t likely to wow any bowl selection committees. Even if we win out, we need Troy to lose two conference games now that they have beaten us and that isn’t likely to happen. Winning out would put us at 8-4 though, making passing on FIU a difficult proposition for any lower tiered bowl game. I just don’t think that will happen. I think FIU wins three of its last five games, finishing 6-6 and staying home for the holidays. Considering that most in the sports media had FIU as the worst team in the country this year, a 6-6 season should be more than enough for its fans. Even I only had them 4-8.
Now before any of you FIU fans start bashing me or saying that I’m not a true fan, let me say that I will gladly print out these pages and eat my words if FIU ends up winning the conference or playing in a bowl game.

Equality or Hypocrisy?

There will never be equality in this country. Never. Yes, I said it. Most people that clamor for equality don’t even know what it means, in my opinion. We are weeks away from likely having our first black American president. That won’t change things though, even if that is his campaign motto. There are too many small groups in American society that feel slighted each time something doesn’t go their way and scream out loud to anyone who will listen.
Have you read about the proposed high school for gay and lesbian students in Chicago? Gay and lesbian students claim that they are the victims of harassment and violence—which I do not doubt-- and want to go to school in an environment free of such things. I agree that people should have the right an educational experience free of fear for one’s own safety but the bullies are the ones that need to go. They should be subject to disciplinary action up to and including expulsion but using taxpayer monies to build a lifestyle exclusive school is going too far.
Could you imagine the uproar if a parental group suggested an all straight school so their children were not subjected to alternative lifestyles? The gay and lesbian community would go apesh*t! But wouldn’t that, by definition, be equality? Aren’t gays and lesbians one of the many groups that cry for equal rights? The right to marry, adopt, share health benefits, etc. Now, don’t think I am arguing against any of those things. If you read my post last week you know that I am all for those things. Well, not all for, but opposed to their rights as Americans being infringed upon for just not being a member of the majority. That being said, you can’t ask for equality and then expect to be granted exclusivity. Pick up a dictionary my friends. You’re not asking for equality, just hypocrisy.
I figure that this topic is as good as any to bring back the weekly poll. Vote away!

The 8th Cirlce of Dante's Hell

Next week is the eighth week of the semester, midterm if you prefer. Undoubtedly, college students nationwide will be doing their part to keep Starbucks’ profits up. Those who prefer a cold, carbonated beverage will be keeping the Red Bull vendors busy as well. Midterm exams, presentations and papers are common this time of year: thanks to the evil professors that scheme to have them on the same days. Unbeknownst to those professors, there is a special circle of Hell reserved for them.
Literature professors like Dr. Joan Baker at FIU will teach that there were only seven circles to Dante’s Hell. But your friend, The Invisible Student, just happens to have a copy of the original text and there is an eighth, secret circle that is reserved for college professors that schedule their exams on the same day as their colleagues. Below the lustful and the gluttonous, the murderers and the suicides, the blasphemers, sodomites, hypocrites, thieves and traitors, are the devious educators.
At first glance, the eighth circle resembles a classroom. There are desks for the students and a podium for the professor. Spanning the wall behind the podium there is a white dry erase board. Above the dry erase board there is one of those generic, round Seth Thomas clocks with the white face and plain black numbers that match the plain black minute and second hands. The carpet is a boring, faded blue and is flat and lifeless after countless semesters of being trampled on by class after class of uncaring students wearing their cruel Nikes, Vans and Chuck Taylors.
In this classroom though, the students are always tardy, every one of them. Professors are helpless against the tardiness, too. Hell prohibits attendance policies. Once the students are all present and accounted for and the professors start to lecture, the students begin to open their sodas and snacks. Their sodas are all in cans and make that disruptive pfffffffffffk noise as the students crack them open and slurp down the foam that bubbles out of the top. Once they’ve wet their whistles, the students begin tearing open their loud plastic bags of Cheetos, Doritos, and Funyuns, which crunch loudly as they are shoveled by the handful into the students mouths.
Once snack time is over and the professor believes that he or she finally has the undivided attention of the students, they begin the lecture anew. After only a few minutes the professor can see the heads of the students begin to nod. As the students fight the weight of their eyelids and their chins fall closer to their chests, their heads spring back to attention, only to start nodding once again. Nap time only lasts a few minutes though and soon the students are at full attention. Only their attention isn’t directed towards the professor. No, after their brief naps, the students open their laptops and begin typing away, much to the professor’s chagrin.
As much as the students try to pretend that they are taking notes, and as much as the professor would like to believe that taking notes is what the pupils are doing, the educator knows better. This isn’t his or her first day in Hell, although today is exactly like the first day in Hell, as well as every day leading up to today. These students are undoubtedly surfing the web, checking their email or Facebook accounts, or checking the most recent posts on some message boards about hockey fights or college football recruiting.
Making matters worse, none of the students ever put their cell phones on vibrate. Slowly but surely each student’s phone rings. A few of them have polite, synthesized ringtones but most blare hip-hop, techno or heavy metal song snippets. In Hell there is no voicemail either. The calls don’t get redirected after only a couple of rings. The phones continue to ring until the students answer and then proceed to rudely conduct their conversations aloud.
Finally, the students seem to settle for a moment and the professor looks at the cookie cutter clock on the wall and sees that they still have ten minutes to get their point across to the students: ten minutes until this hellacious day is over. A moment of relief befalls the weary professor. That is when the students begin to pack up their stuff. They stuff their laptops back into their backpacks, crumple up their soda cans and snack wrappers and, in their best Kareem Abdul-Jabbar impersonation, skyhook them in the direction of the trash can. They all miss though, leaving a small pile of aluminum and cellophane encircling the trash can.
With one cheek still on the seat, the students impatiently await their release. They, like Dante, get to leave Hell. They get to go to this weekend’s football game, to college night at the local pub, to the Drink or Drown party at the Pike house on Friday night. The professor gets to stay here. In a matter of moments the bell will ring and release these students back into the world while at the same time signaling the start of the next class. Because much like the students who must suffer during midterms by going from one class to the next only to have the same fate awaiting them, professors who pile it on those students must spend eternity with the class from Hell.
Think about it.

I'm Very Happy for You, Now Crawl Back Under Your Rock

Politics is a subject I try hard to avoid but this morning I can’t help myself. I was doing some research on other blog sites last night, something I do regularly in an ongoing effort to improve my own blog, and I came across a blog encouraging everyone to vote McCain/Palin because of her militant pro-life stance. Shortly after that I came across another encouraging the same vote because of the anti-gay marriage issue.
I thought that as a country we were supposed to separate church and state but with election time rapidly approaching, more and more of the pro-life, anti-gay marriage religious kooks are crawling out from under their respective rocks and shoving their views down our throats. Unless one of our candidates has a flashing red Batphone that only God has the number to—technically I guess that makes it a Godphone---these shouldn’t be issues, in my opinion. If abortion is murder in God’s eyes, then I’m sure He will deal with the pro-choice populous when the time comes. Same with gay marriage, if He doesn’t condone it, then that is between him and the homosexual community.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I believe in God. I consider myself a Christian although not a practicing one as I have many issues with organized religion. My relationship with God is between He and I. Personally, I don’t believe in abortion or gay marriage. That being said, I don’t believe it is within my right to impose my belief upon others.
I think a woman who has been raped should have the choice of whether she wants a daily reminder of the experience for the rest of her life. Parents who know that their child will be physically or mentally challenged should have the right to decide if that is a burden they wish to assume. I think it is selfish to terminate a pregnancy because you don’t want the added responsibility of taking care of a challenged child but once again, if it’s not my burden or my child, it’s not my call.
Same goes for gay marriage. As I have mentioned before, my employment history is filled with retail sales and merchandising jobs, mostly in high end retail too. Gay men are common in higher end retail. I have worked with many gay men over the course of my life and I can tell you that the love between two men or women involved in a monogamous relationship is just as deep or intense as in any straight relationship. They have the same fights as heterosexual couples and they are just as concerned with getting the bills paid or who gets out of bed first and who gets to hit the snooze button one more time. Why shouldn’t they be able to share healthcare coverage or any other benefits that committed, heterosexual couples can, because you or I don’t believe in it? It’s not our life.
What if someone suddenly told you that you couldn’t watch Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives or Entourage because those shows contained adultery? If you are more into family programming, how would you feel if the religious zealots boycotted a fantastic show like Friday Night Lights because one of the many real life situations the show addresses is teenage sex? My wife and I would be pretty bummed. What if suddenly you could only buy the more expensive organic food at the grocery store because it was all natural, the way that God intended it to be? Even better, what if there was a motion on the ballot to outlaw all-you-can-eat buffets because gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins? Church goers would hate that. I’ve seen plenty of them, dressed in their Sunday best, at IHOP’s breakfast buffet.
When it comes to politics I consider myself a centrist. To me the issues are national security, heath care, immigration and the economy, in no particular order. I know that makes me seem conservative but I also believe in the environment and not in the religious right. I was leaning towards voting for McCain until he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. As I already mentioned, her pro-life stance worries me. If she believes it is the governments place to impose its will on a woman’s rights, what else would she stick her nose into?
To sum this whole thing up, let me just say live and let live. Believe me, God will deal with the ones that he is unhappy with. If one of those happens to be me, so be it. It’s His will.

A Little Consideration, Please!

Some of you will absolutely filet me for the following post and some of you may agree with me but I’ve reached a level of frustration that must be relieved. I mentioned when I started this blog that Tina and I are living with my parents while I return to school and take our lives in a new direction. This living arrangement allows me to go to school full-time without having to work, which helps me focus on school.
This arrangement is not without its share of annoyances though. My parents are totally different people than Tina and I, especially when it comes to food, eating habits and meal planning. Every Sunday Tina and I sit down and plan the weekly menu. This helps us save money since we only buy what we need at the grocery store instead of aimlessly wandering the aisles picking up random junk, which is what my mother does.
We are almost neurotic about our food. Like I said, we only buy what we need in order to prevent waste and save money. I get lunch meat at the deli for my school lunches and often only buy 12 slices—two sandwiches worth-- of whichever meat I want that week. Tina also buys a little extra of whatever she plans on making for dinner so she can have leftovers for lunch. Once again, this is how we plan our weekly meals in order to save money. Problem is, occasionally I will come home and find my lunchmeat gone or three or four slices missing and Tina has woken up on numerous times only to find her lunch eaten or missing. This isn’t a huge deal but it does cause us to have to buy our lunches at school or work on those days, which defeats the purpose of trying to cut costs.
We have tried to politely address the issue with my parents, explaining to them our efforts to plan meals in advance, purchase only what we need at the store, and not spend excessive money buying food court lunches. Honestly, Tina and I feel that if you didn’t buy it at the grocery store, you shouldn’t eat it when it’s in the fridge.
Our reasoning behind that thought process isn’t completely based on money either. Without going into too much detail, let me just say that Tina and I are very conscious about washing our hands and not licking our fingers or sticking them in our noses or ears before we touch food. Not everyone in the house shares our views on food preparation hygiene though. You can imagine our concern when we see that our food has been handled.
Now that I have given you some background, let’s get to this morning’s frustration. Last night before we went to bed, Tina took some sausage out of the freezer to thaw so she could get up and make sausage gravy this morning. Well, she and I slept in this morning and were awoken with the aroma of sausage floating throughout the house. This is when Tina told me of her intentions for that sausage and that she knew that my parents didn’t have any sausage. So now she is upset which naturally gets me upset.
I immediately got up and went to the kitchen and asked my mother if she was cooking with the sausage that Tina had taken out. She told me yes and I explained to her that Tina had planned to make gravy with that sausage. She replied that they were out of bacon so they made the sausage and that they already planned on going out to buy us more. OK, I’m not exactly fine with that but I’m not a total asshole so I left it at that.
Here’s where, in my opinion, the lack of consideration comes in. After my parents ate breakfast they sat around watching television and drinking coffee, knowing that Tina and I were waiting on them to replace our sausage so we could eat breakfast. Yes, we could have changed our plans and eaten something else but why should we have to alter our plans because of their inconsideration? The way I see it, if they didn't have what they needed for breakfast, they should have changed their plans, not infringed upon ours. Tina was looking forward to making that gravy. By the time they left for the grocery store it was a quarter past ten. By the time they got home it was noon, well past breakfast time. It turns out that while we were waiting for them to replace the food that we had planned for our breakfast, the same food that they ate because they never actually plan their meals and shop very randomly, they went and visited some friends, too. I am so happy you enjoyed your breakfast, can we eat today too?
I know that some of you may think I am overreacting and I would agree with you if this was the first, second or third time this has happened but it isn’t. We moved in last December and this is a weekly occurrence. They don’t buy the food that they need at the grocery store and when they run out they just start eating ours without any consideration to what we are going to eat. For example, my parents eat a total of three eggs a day: two for my stepfather and one for my mother. But when we go to the grocery store on Sunday, my mother only buys one dozen eggs. Guess whose eggs they eat once they run out. Tina and I only eat eggs on the weekends. Unfortunately, by the time the weekend comes, we usually don’t have any.
Making matters worse, although they will replace whatever food of ours they have eaten, they will take their time doing so, even if we are waiting. Also, they won’t replace like with like. Tina and I eat organic everything. We buy organic eggs, meats, milk, veggies, etc. When they drink our organic 2% milk, they replace it with regular whole milk, which we don’t drink, so we end up replacing it ourselves anyways. If they eat our free range organic eggs, they replace them with regular which, once again, we don’t eat. So we end up spending more money on replacing food that we never even got the opportunity to eat.
OK, I’ve ranted long enough. Now I leave the floor open to you. Tell me that I’m an overreacting, ungrateful bastard.

Books? We Don't Need No Stinking Books!

This is my third semester at FIU and my first taking all upper division classes. One thing I have noticed is that those overpriced books we are often forced to buy are frequently unnecessary. In my three semesters here I have taken 10 classes total. Of those 10 classes, two were foreign language (Español uno y dos), two were writing, two are/were history, I’m doing one independent study and the remaining three are/were literature classes.
Now obviously you can’t really have a literature class without books. That would be like playing baseball without the bases (I was going to say without balls but then you would be playing softball—yuk yuk). Same goes for foreign language although you might learn just as much watching Univision. In writing classes books are kind of optional. Yes, you should have a good dictionary and thesaurus, as well as a style manual, but they don’t really count as texts. Some writing professors may want you to read different authors and styles, depending on what kind of writing you will be doing, but a good instructor doesn’t need such crutches.
That brings me to history. Can history be taught without books? I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t think so. But if you answered yes, you would be correct. Last spring I took a class in modern American history and the professor taught the entire class by supplementing his lectures with some internet links to relevant articles and materials. In his syllabus he even stated that he saw no need in asking students to pay ridiculous amounts of money for books when the information can be found with a simple Google search.
This semester I am taking a class on ancient Rome and, although there were two books required for the class as well as one recommended, the professor’s test questions are taken strictly from lectures. We had our first test of the semester last Thursday and there wasn’t a single question on it that I couldn’t find the answer to in my class notes. That is disheartening to think about seeing that this class is one of the few in my educational experience in which I have made it a point to stay current on the assigned reading. Granted, his lectures seem to come directly out of one of the books so doing the reading is very helpful since I take awful notes. But for someone who takes good notes, the books in this class would be entirely unnecessary.
In case anyone is wondering, I got a high B on the test. I’m pretty happy about that taking into account that it was the first test and I really didn’t know what to expect. When another student in the class asked the professor what format his tests were, his reply was, “You’ll find out Thursday.”
I guess my point is that, with a quality professor and the availability of adequate resources, books are unnecessary as an educational tool, depending on the topic of course. Coming into this semester my GPA is 3.955 thanks to an A- in a literature class. Only three of the six courses I have completed thus far have required textbooks. The others have had excellent teachers.

Time Off for Good Behavior?

When it comes to movies, Tina and I have an agreement that we alternate his and hers movies. One weekend its horror, action or sci-fi for me, the next its mush and sap for her. Unfortunately, through no doing of mine--although definitely to my benefit--the summer blockbuster season does not offer a lot of sap and mush.
Almost every summer weekend we were at the theater watching movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Iron Man, Indiana Jones 4, Hancock, Hellboy 2, The Incredible Hulk, X-Files 2, The Dark Knight, The Strangers, and more. As we left the theater each week with our ears ringing from the sounds of thunderous explosions or our hair standing in terror, I got a warning.
“You owe me, big time,” she would say.
This past weekend she began collecting. On Sunday we went to see The Women, with Meg Ryan, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Annette Benning, Debra Messing, Candace Bergin, Cloris Leachman and Bette Midler. What is that you say? No men’s names there? Must have only been small, tertiary roles, right? WRONG! There were no men in the movie, at all. Not even a background extra.
Don’t get me wrong, the movie wasn’t a two hour man bashing fest as I had suspected. After all, it was about a wife who learns that her husband has been cheating and then leans on her eclectic collection of friends for support. Honestly, it wasn’t bad. It had some seriously funny moments. Pinkett-Smith made the movie, in my opinion. The hospital scene at the end where Messing was giving birth was laugh out loud funny.
But it did have the obligatory male stereotypes. Pinkett-Smith’s character, a lesbian, reminds her cast mates that dating women doesn’t come with a phobia of asking for directions, the desire to channel surf or an arsenal of offensive bodily functions. Haven’t we heard all that before? Some of us heathens are cultured you know. I eat my sushi with chopsticks.
I leaned over on numerous occasions and told Tina that this movie should count as three of her turns. She didn’t go for that. Our next movie will probably be either Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, which looks very good although I am concerned that Michael Cera is going to be forever cast as the smart but shy quirky kid (see Juno and Superbad), or A Flash of Genius with Greg Kinnear.
Whatever we end up seeing, I’m likely to spend the next few weeks to months cursing the movie Gods for not sprinkling some chick flicks throughout the summer movie season. Because they don’t, rather than going a weekend here and there without bombs, body bags and boobs, Tina has been released for time served and I’m on parole with chick flicks as my community service.

A Few Morning Notes

First of all, how in the HELL does Starbucks run out of those little sleeves for the coffee cups? I must look like a circus juggler bouncing my hot cup o’ joe back and forth in an effort not to scar my sensitive, girly little hands for life.
Second, I’m not a big fan of the Tuesday morning spin instructor at the gym. She’s a one trick pony. All she does is have us go from hand position two into hand position three and back into the saddle, repeat. Over and over again, repeat. Depending on the beat of the song she may increase or decrease the pace at which we do so, but it is still the same motions, over and over. No isolations, sprints, jumps, standing climbs, sitting climbs, nothing.
Thursday’s instructor, Maria, is tons of fun. I don’t mean that she’s heavy either. She is all go and she switches pace and activity often. Two weeks ago Maria had a substitute whose name was Tonia, I think. She was the demon spawn of Satan and Saddam Hussein (remember, they slept together in the South Park movie). I burned over 1000 calories in her one hour class. My average is about 800.
Lastly, there are rumors of a watch party at Kings Creek Tavern in Kendall for this weekend’s football game against North Texas. I don’t think it has been confirmed yet but it would be nice to show up en masse to support the Golden Panthers on the road. Here is the phone number if you would like to call and confirm; 305-273-6123.

A Week of Firsts

Sorry for the lack of posting last week, but I had my first test of the semester and spent a lot of time studying for that. Now that I’ve entered the realm of upper division classes, I’m having to make some adjustments to my study habits. I’ll address that issue in Wednesday’s entry though. My wife was pretty sick last week, too. I spent one of my days off last week driving her to the doctor’s office and then to the pharmacy.
For now, I would like to talk about the week that was in FIU sports. The volleyball team continues to spike the competition. Sorry, I couldn’t resist the cheesy pun. They started conference play this past weekend and won both their matches, making them 2-0 in conference play, 12-3 overall. The men’s soccer team notched their first victory of the season on Sunday. In the 66th minute, defenseman Corey Kendall tallied his 2nd career goal for the Golden Panthers. I had to mention that since I had a Spanish II class with Corey over the summer. Despite playing some tightly contested matches, the lady’s soccer squad continues to search for their first win of the season. They also opened conference play this past weekend, falling 2-1 to Middle Tennessee and tying Western Kentucky 1-1.
Finally, the football team went up to Toledo and grounded the Rockets (I just can’t stop). The offense finally seemed to get it going, although it doesn’t hurt when you start four drives inside the opponents 30 yard line. T.Y. Hilton continues to spark the team. Besides Toledo turnovers, T.Y.’s returns on special teams were the reason the offense benefited from excellent field position most of the night. Not only was the offensive line able to open up holes for A’mod Ned (one touchdown) and Julian Reams (three TDs), but they gave Paul McCall the time in the pocket he has so desperately needed all season. He took advantage of it too, completing passes of 22 and 27 yards to Eric Kirchenberg and Greg Ellingson, respectively. He also threw a 37 yard touchdown pass to, who else, T.Y. Hilton. Hopefully this quiets the QB controversy rumblings.
The defense continues to shine. Not only did they force four turnovers, one interception and three fumble recoveries, but they held a team that put 54 points on 25th ranked Fresno State the week before to 16 points. The four forced turnovers gave the team a +2 turnover ration on the season. Of all the football stats that are kept, I consider that to be one of the important ones. You don’t find a lot of 1-3 teams that have a positive turnover ratio, which tells me that this team is better than its record indicates.
The Golden Panthers now begin conference play on a roll. When I did my football preview at the beginning of the season, I said that FIU might be able to steal a win at Toledo or North Texas. Now that they’ve won at Toledo, I don’t think that it is out of the realm of possibility that they win again this week. How nice would it be to have the Golden Panthers come home riding a two game winning streak?

A Few Pics from FIU vs. USF

My Thoughts on the Game

Let me start on a positive note.  We should all be proud of the effort that our Golden Panthers put forth on Saturday night.  To go into a game against a heavily favored and highly ranked opponent and come out with only an eight point loss is definitely something to build on and means that this program may in fact be heading in the right direction.  

On defense, the whole effort put forth was incredible.  USF made four trips inside our red zone and came out with only two touchdowns, a blocked field goal attempt and a turnover on downs.  Matt Grothe, the best college quarterback in the state of Florida that isn’t named Tim Tebow, was held to less than 200 yards of total offense and sacked twice.  Also, the Bulls’ top three receivers combined for only eight catches totaling 84 yards.

The FIU offense was 53 seconds away from going three straight games without finding the end zone until Julian Reams’ one yard touchdown run.  Setting up Reams’ run was a 61 yard throw and catch from Wayne Younger to T.Y. Hilton.  As I write this I am sure that Offensive Coordinator Bill Legg is drawing up plays specifically intended to get T.Y. more touches.  Although the offense continues to struggle, keep in mind that we are playing top notch competition.  Before anyone starts calling for Paul McCall’s head, let him take some snaps in conference games.  Once the Golden Panthers are playing against teams more on their level, we should see this offense running in the manner that it should.

The atmosphere before and during the game was incredible.  Being there for the pre-game tailgate in Tamiami Park, you would never know that this is a program that is only in it’s seventh season and is 1-25 in it’s previous 26 games.  I’ve tailgated in Tuscaloosa for Crimson Tide games, Gainesville for Gator games including Auburn, Tennessee and Florida State, and Jacksonville for Florida/Georgia, aka The World’s Largest Cocktail Party, and the atmosphere outside FIU Stadium on Saturday rivaled any of them.  Inside the stadium, the student section was rocking.  They were loud and energetic and that energy was matched by the team’s play on the field.

That being said, let me address some of the negative issues I had with the game.  Why were there so many empty seats?  What happened to the standing room only crowd that the school was marketing?  I understand the school not wanting the stands to be filled with USF fans and therefore limiting the number visitors tickets and not allowing single game tickets to be sold for this game.  

But that takes me back to a major sticking point I’ve had since student vouchers were given out.  Why were students not allowed a guest ticket as well?  Those empty seats could have been filled had students been allowed to bring a guest, even two.  On top of that, what was the point in the vouchers anyway?  Myself and the few people I was with walked right through the gates, only having to flash our student ids.  Had I known that, I would have brought my wife and had her flash my other student id.  I was very disappointed by that.  Like I said in my Lack of Communication entry last week, as a student, I don’t feel that I am very high on the administration’s priority list.

There are three weeks until our next home game against Middle Tennessee.  Hopefully changes will be made by then.

ELI3

College and the George Lucas Casting Call

I won’t bother putting up a poll question asking college students to take a side, pro or con, on the issue of human cloning.  Just by being on campus twice a week and looking around,  I know that the majority would be in favor of it.  Not since the last time I watched Star Wars Episode II have I seen so many robotic look-a-likes.  It makes me wonder if the government hasn’t already perfected genetic cloning beyond that of sheep and I didn’t get the memo.

The most common clones seen on campus, in my opinion, are the “vintage” clones.  These students, excuse me, clones are identifiable by their jeans that seem to have been borrowed from dear old dad, who wore them when he was in school.  They are fraying at the seams, have uneven signs of wear, possibly even holes, and dangling, loose threads.  In all likelihood though, these jeans were recently purchased at Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle or, for the Economics majors, in the Mossimo section of Target.  Holding these jeans on is a rather wide belt, which is also showing signs of vintage distress, complete with an obnoxiously large and shiny belt buckle.  

Covering their torsos are well worn t-shirts, each with some form of eagle or dragon graphic swooping in from the shoulder or wrapping itself around the neck.  The clones may also be seen wearing the tour shirts of artists like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix or AC/DC.  On their heads you will often find vintage trucker hats which are worn sideways in order to protect their ears from overexposure to sun, I’m not sure what that is all about.  Their eyewear consists of huge, and when I say huge I mean gigantic, sunglasses, which are sometimes white in color.  Don’t ask.  If I could, I would insert one of those smileys here; the one that is looking down and shaking it’s head at the embarrassment of another.  Just use your imagination. 

The vintage clones come in both male and female versions.  Though they appear identical in dress and demeanor, the female clones can be identified by the butterfly, fairy or tribal symbol tattooed on their lower back.  These tattoos, which can usually only be seen if the female is wearing the obligatory “low rider” jeans, are commonly referred to as tramp stamps.

I understand the want or need to fit in and I’m not completely innocent here.  This whole blog was started because of my insecurities about being my age and still in college.  That’s a whole other entry though.  My point is that, in order to ease my own insecurities and blend in, I too have engaged in pack behavior.  I’ve been known to wear the occasional pair of brand new vintage jeans (did you catch the oxymoron?). Hell, Lucky Brand Jeans are the only brand in my closet.  There may even be a few graphic tees tucked away in my drawers somewhere.

But I would’ve thought that the urge to look like everyone else was more of a grade school thing.  Notice that I said grade, not grad or even undergrad.  Isn’t college supposed to be where one comes to find out who they are and express their individuality?  Maybe I’ve already answered my own question.  Could it be that our own insecurities outweigh our need for individuality and instead of standing out, we choose to merely blend in?  There is safety in numbers, right?  

If I look just like the guy sitting next to me, maybe no one will notice that I’m 36.  If the girl in front of me looks just like the girl next to her, maybe nobody will see that her heart is broken or that her parents are divorced.  Yes, there is safety in numbers.

Looking back, what was supposed to be a rant on clichés has evolved into an argument against and a defense of clichés and pack behavior.  I guess I will need a poll.  That’s what you guys seem to respond to most anyways.  Those of you who read my blog can leave comments you know.  Don’t be shy.

ELI3

Sun Belt Shines

Traditionally, Sun Belt teams are the ones that the big conference schools schedule early on in the season when they are tired of beating up on themselves in intra-squad scrimmages and need someone else to practice with prior to the rigorous conference schedule beginning.  They may also schedule them for homecoming when they need a guaranteed win for the students, alumni and distinguished guests (recruits).  It’s a symbiotic relationship from which both schools benefit: the big school gets a pretty much guaranteed win, and the smaller programs get a big payday for their school.

Things have changed though.  Last year, Louisiana Monroe went to Tuscaloosa and came out of Bryant-Denny Stadium with a win over SEC powerhouse Alabama.  Yes, the same Alabama Crimson Tide that has 12, count ‘em, 12 national titles.  Troy beat the Cowboys of the Big Twelve’s Oklahoma State, too.

So far in this young season, Sun Belt teams have come close to playing spoiler in some big conference school’s seasons.  In week one Arkansas State beat Texas A&M and in week two Middle Tennessee beat Maryland, who then beat #23 California.  On top of the victories, Sun Belt teams, with the exception of our beloved Golden Panthers, have been able to play competitive football, too.  Last week Arkansas needed a last minute touchdown to beat ULM.  This past weekend MTSU played Kentucky very closely, as did Arkansas State with Southern Miss, Brett Favre’s alma mater.  Louisiana-Lafayette almost sipped the fun out of Champagne, Illinois, losing to Ron Zook’s 24th ranked Fighting Illini 20-17.  I also believe that, had it not rained as badly as it did, FAU might have been able to beat Michigan State in East Lansing.  Instead, Mother Nature did her part to shut down Rusty Smith and the high flying offense of the Owls.  I don’t know who to blame Cortez Gent’s sudden case of the dropsies on though.

Granted, the Goliaths that have fallen at the hands of Davids of the Sun Belt have been  middle of the pack teams, with the exception of Alabama.  The Sun Belt has yet to conquer the Floridas, Ohio States and Texas’ of the world, but that day may dawn sooner than later.  Maybe the Sun Belt teams aren’t too far from passing their counterparts in Conference USA or the MAC as the whipping boys of the NCAA.  

Is this the week that FIU’s football program gets the signature win it so desperately needs?  Perhaps.  After all, FIU did play well against Kansas, despite what the lopsided score would indicate.  Our opponent this week, the Bulls of the University of South Florida, who are led by stud quarterback Matt Grothe, needed a heroic effort from their star to rally past the Jayhawks in Tampa this past weekend.  

USF may be the most talented team we’ll face all season.  They play with speed and finesse on offense and hit hard on defense.  But we are opening our new stadium this week and I’m sure that Coach Cristobal is pounding that into the boys every day in practice.  The university has invested a ton of money not only in the construction of the stadium, but in the marketing of this as a program on the rise.  The last thing they want to see is the Panthers getting blown out in The Cage‘s inaugural game. 

Lack of Communication

Is the student section of the stadium going to be general admission?  If not, how can my friends and I sit together?  Should we all show up together to pick up our tickets?  What about block seating for academic and social clubs, or the Greek organizations?  Is there a plan in the works to accommodate group seating?  In the future, will one representative from an organization be able to show up at the ticket office with the student ids from all of the members and pick up the tickets for the whole group so that they may sit together?

These are only a few of the questions that remain unanswered going into the week of the first game in our new on-campus stadium.  Many students are still asking where they go to get their tickets for the game.  I only knew about it because I was lucky enough to have an employee of the athletic department in one of my summer classes.  Otherwise, I never would have seen the email about student vouchers, since it went straight into my spam catcher.  

One final question.  Why has the communication not been better regarding the football season?  It seems to me that the students should be a bit higher on the priority list when it comes to football.  Isn’t the school trying to build a winning program?  To do that, you need better recruits.  To get better recruits, you need a few things: a winning team, which we are supposedly working on; for offensive recruits, you need a sexy, productive offense and likewise for the defense; you need to have your former players playing on Sundays in the NFL; lastly, your program needs to be playing in nationally televised games.

To accomplish that last thing, you need a frenzied atmosphere.  Yes, a frenzied atmosphere could be  listed in the things you need to land top-notch recruits, but it’s a two-edged sword.  ESPN doesn’t want to broadcast a game with a silenced crowd, just like coaches and Athletic Directors don’t want to invite potential recruits to games with lame crowds.  Potential recruits want to see fans going nuts, like they do in The Swamp.  They want to hear the roar of the crowd, the thunder of thousands of feet stomping on the bleachers and the deafening chant of the fight song.  These are the same things networks want to see.

But networks and recruits won’t see those things from a crowd filled with local businessmen and women.  They won’t see them from local executives from Suntrust or Bank of America, who are only at the game as invited guests of an administration hoping to sell naming rights to the stadium or to gain enough monetary commitments to ensure that future stages of the stadiums construction are financed.  That’s who all the tickets for the first game are going to.  Not to the students, who would likely be the ones creating the frenzy within the crowd.    

The school is more concerned with it’s image within the community than with the student body.  The school is banking on the old Field of Dreams mentality of, “If you build it, they will come.”  

They seem to think that the stadium alone will turn this program in the same direction that other young programs like USF and FAU are heading.  Without the support of the students, it won’t happen.  Like I’ve said before, the lack of interest in the sports culture at FIU is amazing to me.  I know this entry is making me seem like an anti sports guy but I am far from that.  I’ll be wearing my blue and gold to every sporting event that I can make it too this year and next.  Hopefully well beyond that, too.  But there aren’t many like me on campus.   When I asked other students about going to the open house at the stadium last week, they looked at me as if I was nuts.  I get similar looks when  I ask about football game attendance.  It seems that, for the most part, the student body could care less about football at FIU and ignoring them and leaving them out of the loop isn’t going to change that.

It all goes back to the age old chicken versus the egg question.  Can you get the support of the student body without a winning program?  Probably.  But can you get a winning program without the support of the student body?  The administration seems to be banking on it. 

Based on the results of last weeks poll, like me, you are all most annoyed by the know it all in class.  Thanks to the nine of you who voted.

ELI3   

Where's the School Pride, People?

I was in class yesterday discussing the gym closure with a couple of classmates when I told them how happy I was that I checked my mail the day before and got the notice that the gym would be closed until Thursday, thanks to Hurricane Ike and the evacuees from Key West.  You see, in order to make it to the gym early enough to get a spot in the morning spin class, which fills up quickly, I get up at 4:30, leave the house by 5:30 and arrive on campus around 6:30.  So getting up that early yesterday only to find the gym closed and class cancelled would have been a crappy way to start my day.   When I made this proclamation you should have seen the heads turn in the class. 

“Why do you have to leave so early?” Everyone asked.

“Because I live in Boynton.”  

Even more heads turned at this.  No one could believe that I make the trek, twice a week, from Boynton to Miami to take classes at FIU.  And then it happened.  They asked me the same question that people have been asking me ever since I started school last January: the same question I get each time I tell someone that I commute 68 miles, one-way, from Boynton Beach.

“Why don’t you just go to FAU?”  

Why does everyone ask me that?  Shouldn’t I be proud to go to FIU?  Where’s the school pride, people?

I’ll explain it like this.  I grew up in Boynton Beach, went to two and a half years of high school in Lantana and finished my high school education in Delaware before moving back to Boynton Beach.  While I was going to high school down here, anyone and everyone who was going to college after high school was going to FAU, providing they didn’t get into UF or FSU.  So I always kind of saw FAU as more of a safety net than as a first choice kind of college.  It was a fallback school.  FAU in Palm Beach County is probably a lot like FIU in Miami-Dade, the school that local kids go to when they can’t go somewhere else.  I guess that when I started looking at schools a couple of years back, that thought was still there: I didn’t even apply to FAU.

A few things drew me to FIU, the first being that they were building that beautiful new facility for the Marine Biology program.  Remember, before I realized that science and math just weren‘t for me, I wanted to be Jacques Cousteau.  The new football stadium was also a big draw for me.  As a huge college football fan, being here for the early stages of what has the potential to grow into a great program meant something.  I started following FIU last year during that dismal season and will continue to support them, no matter how frustrating it may be, from now on.  

Lastly, this is my first experience at a four year school.  I didn’t do well enough in high school to get into a four year school directly and had to take the community college route.  Eventually, bad choices and the bills that resulted from them would cause me to put that on hold.  So this experience at FIU is my first true college experience and I would like to try and make it as much like the experience I missed in my early 20s as possible, only without the parties and club hopping.  I’ve been to the FAU campus and, in all honesty, it doesn’t have that college campus feel.  It feels like a commuter college campus.  If I wanted the commuter college experience I would have just gone to University of Phoenix, where the credits are unlikely to transfer to a four year school, making grad school a long shot. 

University Park has that college atmosphere that I was looking for.  Sure, the Greeks never ask me to rush their frat or give me one of their little flyers as I walk down the hall of the Graham Center, and my classmates call me sir, but  I don’t feel like such the outcast.  The insecurities that plagued me during my first semester are gone now.

I like FIU just fine, thank you very much.  That’s why I don’t go to FAU.   

I had an all-time high seven votes in last weeks poll.  Thank you to those of you who participated.  This week's poll will relate to this blog entry somehow, vote away!