Quote for the Day: Swine Flu Humor

Is My Generation Stupid?

Recently President Obama stated that college kids today weren't as intelligent as those in the past. Granted, I am paraphrasing what he said, but that was the basic point. Is this true? My gut says yes for the most part. It should be said that there are many smart young people who work hard and take life seriously instead of being lazy. However, that category of people is probably an overwhelming minority. Having reached this conclusion based on my own experiences and without any true data or research, I confess that I feel a bit of irony in my own writing. However, I'ved wondered how many people in past generations were seemingly "stupid". That is difficult to know, but it's a safe bet that there were roughly as many idiots back then as there are now. Maybe the idiots of my generation are just more idiotic than the average. So, my generalized and unscientific conclusion is that there are dumb people in every generation, but my generation has people that are dumber than normal. (Rant Over).

NYC Scare

Yesterday I was one of many to find out about the false emergency in NYC that forced thousands of people out of their work buildings and high rises. What caused this unfortunate scenario to take place? Some idiot at the D.O.D. who took it upon himself to take update the Air Force One file photo without consulting President Obama or any NYC official. Can you imagine the memories that must have come flooding back into peoples' minds while witnessing this? Further, I wonder how much energy, money, and resource was wasted after NYC sent emergency units down to the area? I just don't understand how AT LEAST the Mayor of the city was not even informed. It reinforced in my mind the lack of communication and unity there is in the government at all levels. How many federal departments have essentially gone "rogue" without consulting anybody else and, therefore, creating little responsibility or accountability for what they do. The system is rotten and needs an overhaul desperately. Get rid of the dynastic families (Bushes, Kennedys, Rockefellers, etc.) and get new blood into the system.

Spring Game

As many of you college football nuts are aware, spring games across the nation have been played recently or will be played soon. Like many things in life, each spring brings hope of new things. That is no different from our beloved football teams. As the old saying goes "hope springs eternal". Yesterday was the annual spring game for my favorite time: The Ohio State Buckeyes. Yes, our players and coaches have been getting a lot of flack in recent years (some deserved, some not) for not being able to pull out a big game win. While I would like the Bucks to go out and win every game every year in convincing fashion, it is entirely impossible to do that. But don't tell our fans that :)

So what we do have is the ability to believe in what we have. Sure we lost a few top players who were great to the program and will prove to be great NFL players. But losing the old and bringing in new blood allows for more heroes (and villains) to be made. I think that is what this team needed desperately. The old guard was proving to be ineffective and often time lacked a certain emotion in games. Mental lapses and inter-squad turmoil pervaded this past season, and we still almost beat a darn good Texas squad in the Fiesta Bowl. Now we have new players, new breath, new life. These players are pieces of highly recruited classes of which many of the others were not. Generally speaking, the talent is more potent now than it was then and it has already shown via the spring game. Will OSU go on to win a national title this year? Maybe. This team is young and loose which is a refreshing departure from the uptight squads of recent days gone by. In any case, my hopes are certainly high for this team, but I've learned one very valuable thing over the years: One game at a time. Go Bucks!

The overuse of the words "literally" and "surreal"

Have you ever come across a person who used a word in the wrong context or meaning multiple times in a conversation? Sometimes even misusing multiple words and their proper usage? Maybe even you have yourself? If you can at least concede that you have and remedy the problem (or maybe you already have), then consider yourself in the minority. These kinds of abuses of the English language are particularly common amongst the high school and college-aged youth. However, it's also prevalent among those in the entertainment industry to whom many in the younger generations look to and often emulate.

The two words that always get misused far too often are "literally" and "surreal". An example of such lunacy came to my attention while I was waiting for an appointment. The office only had entertainment genre magazines, so I explored a particular magazine article that had published an interview with the newest "pop-tart" who has her own T.V. show, concert tour, and a B-list former mullet-wearing celebrity father. In the interview, she was asked "what's the first thing you do when you get out of bed?". She replied, "well normally my mom or dad pours me some cereal and I'll listen to some music to get me going. But today I had to do it myself and it was really surreal!" Really? Making your own breakfast is surreal? Let's look at Webster's definition of surreal for a moment. Webster's defines surreal as: "marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream". Is making your cereal that much of a dream? Really? Now if the cereal had little dancing leprechauns coming out of the box, then I could at least see why the use of "surreal" might be applied.

The second of these overused words is "literally". I hear this particular verbal mangling on a daily basis it seems. One of my more memorable encounters with such a damaging misuse was in--of all places--a bookstore. I was browsing through the "Essays" section of the store when I overheard a conversation from a group of young girls. I couldn't tell if they were in high school or older, but they were in that range in any case. They were talking about what they did at lunch and one of them mentioned eating a "really good" sandwich from the cafeteria. Another replied with a similar sentiment but added "I literally sat down and ate the sandwich too". Maybe it's me but isn't literally sitting down to eat a sandwich self-explanatory? Can you metaphorically sit down and eat a sandwich? Come on ladies, you can do better than that. Here's Webster's definition: "in effect; actually". Would the sentence mean any less if you took literally out of it? NO! You don't need the word!

I oftent think that people who do misue these particular words do so because they don't know any other way to describe a situation. So if something seems like it could be surreal or literal, then they throw it in as if to sound more intelligent. Also, they probably see particular celebrities use those words often, and therefore do the same. My advice? Build a vocabulary and quit watching celebrities. Maybe even read a book! There are many other words to describe situations than literally or surreal, and if you want people to take what you are saying more seriously, I would suggest finding dropping the words all together unless absolutely needed. (End of Rant)

Quote for the Day

"The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live." -Oliver Wendell Holmes

Am I In?

I'm posting today out of curiosity. I received an email from the UNR grad school today saying that I was "recommended for admittance into the graduate school". Now there are a few ways to read this: First, I was actually accepted into the program. Second, I was only recommended for the program. Third, I was recommended by one of my personal recommendations. To bring you up to speed on the third point, there was a snafu about one of my final recommendations getting lost. So, I had to ask the professor to resend his rec to UNR. I don't think it has anything to do with that at all because why would I get an email telling me that I was recommended by somebody who I asked to recommend me to the program in the first place. It seems very unecessary. So, I am left with the conclusion that I am either accepted or in the process of being accepted. If I wind up not being admitted, then that would be a serious case of grad school blue balls don't you think?