I find that the older I get, the snobbier I get. Maybe others feel the same way I do, but if you cannot speak English properly, you need to go back to school. Is that terrible of me to say? When I hear someone bastardize the English language, particularly people who are born and educated here, it drives me completely insane. Now, I know I'm smart and educated and have had advantages over many other people. I should be more tolerant, but I just can't seem to get past bad grammar.
I suppose that in a social situation, bad grammar - while still annoying - is a little more excusable, but in a corporate setting, it's just bad form. I was temping at an organization recently in which the other admin I was working with was on a phone call representing the President and CEO of this organization. She was using double negatives and improper grammar while trying to negotiate a meeting room with an outside vendor. Frankly, I was embarrassed for her and if I had been on the other end of that telephone call would have assumed that I was dealing with someone of low intelligence. Now I know that makes me a snob. I just cannot help it.
One of my daily guilty pleasures is watching Judge Judy. I know, I know, but I find her completely entertaining. She also seems to have the same issues that I do with bad grammar and actually calls people on their mistakes. I think "Huzzah, why can't I do that??" Oh, right because I live in the civilized world where correcting people on their bad habits, grammar and anything else is considered rude. Yet, the rest of us have to tolerate this behavior. Maybe we can find a middle ground. Is there a way to gently correct people without seeming like a schmuck?
I think this is one of the reasons I feel the need to teach. As an educator, I can (hopefully) help students achieve their full potential and can actually fix bad grammar habits. Perhaps I can make a difference in a young person's life.
That title sounds like a Dear Abby handle! But yes, I'm angry at Angry Birds. Well, okay, maybe angry is too strong a sentiment. It's more like I'm annoyed. No, that's not right either. What am I? I'm addicted! Yes, that's it!
Approximately 8 or 9 months ago, some co-workers were discussing this new game called Angry Birds. I had never heard of it and was given the advice not to download this game because it was a stupid game and completely addicting. I laughed at that notion and, being the curious girl that I am, I downloaded the game right then and there to see what the hype was all about. I spent the next 6 hours straight playing this game, thinking that it was the dumbest game I'd ever played. Months later and I have all 3 Angry Birds games (the original, Seasons and Rio). I am obsessed with getting 3 stars on all levels and finding all the golden eggs, bananas and whatnot. I am constantly vigilant on checking to see if there are new levels to be downloaded and immediately have to play when there are. Why is this game so addicting? It really is a pretty dumb game and yet everyone I know who purchases it, ends up addicted.
I don't know how Rovio did it, but I wish I had come up with something just as brilliant as they did. Angry Birds influence is now seen everywhere in media. Sprint, Bing, Nokia, T-Mobile have all jumped on the AB bandwagon. AB was even featured in an Israeli comedy show called "Eretz Nehederet (in English: A Wonderful Country), one of the nation's most popular TV programs, [which] satirized recent failed Israeli-Palestinian peace attempts by featuring the Angry Birds in peace negotiations with the pigs" (Wikipedia). See below for the clip. It's flipping hilarious!
Now am I angry at Rovio because I'm addicted to this game or because they were so smart in creating something so dumb that's making them millions of dollars? It's a toss up! I don't know what Rovio has up their sleeves next, but you can be sure that I will be breathlessly awaiting the next release of AB and obsessively playing!! Thanks, Rovio, for screwing up my social life...wait, what social life.
Today I began Week 4 of the Couch to 5K program and I'm going to have to repeat this one. In fact, I may have to go back a step. Today's workout was: 5 min warm up walk, 3 min jog, 30 sec walk, 5 min jog, 2.5 min walk, 3 min jog, 30 sec walk, 5 min cool down.
I was actually doing fine until I hit the 5 minute jog. I was listening to my 80s playlist and what could be more inspiring than listening to "My Sharona" and "Love Shack." Then 4 minutes into the 5 minute jog and I had to stop jogging. I couldn't do it, although I did continue to walk and didn't quit altogether. Was it because it was 90 degrees out? Was it something I ate? Didn't eat? That I forgot to bring water and it's 90 degrees out? Lack of sleep? The fact that I never really completed Week 3's workouts cleanly? Was it the heat? Did I mention that it's flipping 90 degrees out?!?! Or is just that I'm the 2 "Fs": Fat and Forty-(something)! Jogging with an extra 30 pounds is not fun and add to that a torn meniscus and 45 year old joints.
Here's a recommendation for the 20/30-somethings: Start now! I was an thin, active child but became an overweight, lazy teen/adult. Once I hit my early teens, I hated exercise. In my 20s and 30s, I was more interested in drinking with friends and hanging out rather than exercising. I don't think a weekly trip to a nightclub during the mid-80s really constitutes as exercise ... But I did learn how to "strike a pose" with the best of them. Now that it's a couple of decades later and I'm older and supposedly wiser, I will state unequivocally that I still hate exercising and really am only doing it because I have to do it, not because I want to do it. Doctors, friends and family have been urging me for years to bite the bullet, lose weight and start exercising. At the end of March 2010, after what I have termed "PigFest 2010" (a roadtrip with my friend, Erin, to southwest Virginia where I ate my way through the weekend), I bit the bullet and decided to do something about it. With the assistance of another dear friend, Charlie*, who convinced me that if he could do it, I certainly could... except that Charlie is in his 30s and it's much easier for men to lose weight and get in shape than women (Add that to a long list of why men have an unfair advantage over women!)... But with his input and help, I did manage to lose 70 pounds, of which I've put back on 11 by not staying the course. I still have another 30 pounds to go and it's getting harder and harder to stay focused on the goal. It's tiring and boring!
Kids, listen to what this elder has to say: Don't wait until you're older to get into a regular exercise regimen. I wish that I had pushed myself when I was young to get into a workout regime because even if I never learned to love exercise, I at least would be used to it by now. I really have to push myself every day to stick to my workout schedule. Would I rather be sitting on the couch, reading a book and eating Kettle Chips? You bet! That's what my formative years were all about. But I'm paying the piper now and it's painful and expensive.
_____________ *Name has been changed to protect the innocent.
I've been job hunting for the past couple of months and not so shockingly, it's hard for a mid-career person to find a job that isn't entry level, pays a decent salary and is interesting work - although right now I'd settle just for anything that will pay my bills. Most companies are looking for kids right out of college in which they can pay them a meager salary and have them work like grunts. Unless of course you have degrees in business, accounting or technology - especially technology. There are scores of technology positions available. So why did I major in English Literature? Funny story...
A hundred years ago...okay, not that long ago... in 1984, I started my college career, majoring in Music and Theatre and after 4 semesters (2 years) and an Associates degree under my belt, I dropped out of college because I was going to take Broadway by storm. Erm... yeah... wanna guess how that turned out?? Jump forward 20 years to 2006 and feeling like I needed to finish what I started, I returned to college. I made the conscious decision that if I were going to plunk down quite a few thousand dollars to finish my degree that I wanted to study something I loved so I chose English Literature and in May 2010, I graduated with my degree in English Literature - summa cum laude (with a GPA of 3.89) from City College of New York. Shall we now guess how far this degree has gotten or will get me? Yeah, that would be nowhere. Oh, wait. No, it's gotten me somewhere... In debt! So that's something, right?? Plus I've got some paper to line a bird cage with, if I ever decided to get a flying shitbag.
As I mentioned, there are tons of jobs out there for someone with a technology background/degree. Why didn't I major in some field of technology you might ask?? Because I find technology to be the most boring field of study (okay, really business and accounting are the most boring, with technology a very close third ... it might even be a three-way tie). Had I majored in some technology field, IF I would have graduated at all, it certainly would not have been summa cum laude because I would have slept through all of my classes. Now don't get me wrong. I love using technology. I can't imagine living without my laptop, iPod Touch, GPS, Kindle, Blackberry and any other device you can think of. But to spend all day writing code or talking techno talk with co-workers is about the most boring way of spending my day. The past 2 companies I worked for were technology companies and I never quite got the gist of what either company did. I could give the basics but ask me for anything beyond a bare bones explanation and I was at a loss. I tried to learn the technology and would sit with the former CTO of my former company for hours, just trying to understand, but alas it was mostly for naught. After 3 years of studing and asking questions of those who knew the technology and I still had a bitch of a time explaining how the technology worked.
I admire my friends who work in the technology field... same as I admire people who are in the waitstaff industry. Someone has to do these jobs and I'm not one of them. So huzzah to you, my technology friends. Well done!!
In addition to being an English Literature major, I want to specialize in 19th Century British novels (if I ever get around to going to graduate school), where the most advanced "technology" is the horse drawn carriage. So what is a technology-challenged, 19th Century loving girl to do? Notwithstanding the fact that I own a Kindle, I still prefer to read books and I actually like men to hold open doors for me. Although, I would never want to live without indoor plumbing and don't want to be considered property and unable to vote. I'm truly confused. I think Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation, said it best: "I feel like a defective model, like I came off the assembly line flat-out fucked and my parents should have taken me back for repairs before the warranty ran out." I'm guessing that at my age, the warranty has run out.
One day I hope to figure it all out. In the meantime, I just go along as best I can, knowing that I'm a bit of a square peg who will never fit into a round hole and I will have to wait to get it right in a future incarnation.
