Author: Rick

I’m in college and I write like I’m in sixth grade

Posted by Rick on in Misc 0 Comment

I’m in college and I write like I’m in sixth grade

I’m not the best writer. My grammar leaves something to be desired, I love throwing in radom commas, and my spelling is atrocious (see?) But… I try. English was my hardest class all through school, at least until I got to the point that I could start writing stories and such more often.

But please – in my senior of high school (a forlorn 10+ years ago,) I was in Advance Placement English and considered myself at the low end of the scale there. Yet one girl in the class had problems with they’re, their, and there. Not to mention a complete lack of a grasp of capitals.

Now I’m going to really show my age (and probally geekiness,) but I know why short hand became popular on the Internet. When you’re connected on a 300 baud or less modem you could type faster then the characters were echoed back to you. So people would do the old bc instead of because, and the whole smiley face revolution happened.

In college I would go on the Moo’s and thought that for the most part we were well educated people who typed out sentances in full to get a point across. Sure there was some short hand, LOL, RTFM, ROFL all came out of that. But for the sake of sanity! U does not equal you!

I was chatting with this guy online who claimed to be a professor of some history department on the East Coast. And he said something like “Are u sure?” I mean… that’s for kids who are in sixth grade! Add the friggin’ y and o you idiot. Nothing destroys your credibility as an educated person then shorthanding a word that is only three letters long in the first place!

*sigh* Oh well… I guess I’ll either die as a relic, or I’ll need to keep up with the cultural revolution. I didn’t officially reconize that the Internet was “popular,” until about 1997. At which time I conviced the boss at work to start an ISP. Of course I still believe that the Commodore 64 was the pinnacle of computer evolution, even though graphically and sound wise it’s been surpassed years ago.

I’m still convinced that Pirates! and Below the Root are the best games ever, despite having been hooked on the Civilization series since it first came out. And I still believe that my 1995 Ford Crown Victoria is *the* car.. despite drastically rising gas prices.

Chopsticks – the greatest invention ever

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Chopsticks – the greatest invention ever

I have on my desk at work two pairs of chopsticks. One I stole from from Pho Hung, one of the better Vietenamise beef noodle soup places around town. They’re plastic, and have some random writing on them, and what looks like a peacock.

The other pair is by far my favorite. They’re your typical enameled Japanese Chopsticks – not really special in them selves. The black enamel is shaved away at the top revealing spots of different colors. These were given to me nearly ten years ago by a friend who had recently returned from Japan as a Christmas gift. Was VERY awesome, as I also got a Raman bowl from someone else. The bowl got busted a couple of years ago, but for a long time I used the chopsticks everyday.

You see, I have a really sensitive sense of touch. I love velvet, but can feel each fiber that sticks up. Cordory bugs the hell out of me. Certain woods do too – especially if they’re semi-finished at all. The fake wood they make cheap wooden chopsticks out of is the worse, so I’ll bring these with me to the restraunt. It never fails that I get a comment from the wait staff about it.

The funny thing is that traditionally you carried your chop sticks with you every where. In some cases they were even used as weapons. I guess they’re just not used to American’s being that picky about a set of chop sticks.

On the other hand I guess I’m lucky, I’ve only ever once been in a restraunt where some white trash was dining and demanded to have forks and spoons “like civilized folks,” instead of some “stupid sticks.” I felt embarresed about the way the waiter and owner bowed and scrapped to make them feel at home, and the couple didn’t even realize it. They went on to complain loudly that there better not be any dog or cat meat in the food, sniffing heavily at each piece of meat. Like we American’ are much better. Eating Pig’s feet, Pork Rinds, and who knows what else.

All I want to do is Sing and Dance

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All I want to do is Sing and Dance

I’m looking for suggestions on new music to check out. I use to use Kazaa Lite for this. I’d randomly type in a word, or perhaps a type of music and download everything I came across. Then I’d spend hours going through what I downloaded looking for stuff I liked. Then it was a quick trip down to Everyday Music to look and see what they had that I liked.

I found a good group called Toybox after looking for the word “Sailor.” I was actually looking for Ray Steven’s “The Pirate Song, (I Want to Sing and Dance,)” after seeing some friends perform it at Embers (also known locally as “the” Bar,) for a GBLT benefit.

Anyways – I liked it so much that I downloaded a few more of their songs. They’re very Aqua like – but for some reason the tunes and words are much catchier. I mean, Barbie Girl is ok, but Toy Box takes that a step further and puts it in all their songs. From the first album Fantastic, I like “The Sailor Song,” “ET,” “Tarzan and Jane,” and “Best Friend.” Best Friend is funny, on the CD there is a music video included that brings us back to Aqua’s Barbie Girl.

Anyways, I think that my favorite type of music has become Techno or Punk Remakes of more famous songs. Me First and the Gimme Gimmeies are a really good example. Pretty much their entire discography is based on remakes. One of my favorites is “Science Fiction Double Feature,” being a big Rocky fan back in the day (a mere two years ago,) it really hit the spot with me.

Another type that I enjoy is Old Time Radio. Jack Benny is probally my personal favorite, but (George) Burns, and (Gracie) Allens, Bob Hope, Fibber McGee, etc, are all really good too. My only gripe is that my car MP3 player won’t play these at the lower bit rates. Most are 30 minute shows, since the orginial format is so bad they’re ripped at a really low rate, so 21 – 30 minutes ends up being your typical 5-7MB file. Being a bit of an amateur historian, it’s really cool to listen to these old shows. Unluckily I don’t have the 45 minute commute to work like I use to, so it’s hard to find time to listen to them. 9 times out of 10, they’re usually funnier then anything that’s on the air today.

So if anyone has any suggestions for some music to check out, hamellr@yahoo.com. (remove the extra period,) would be appreciated. Please no Modern Country or Rap! I don’t want to shoot myself, or get shot for listening to the wrong type of music.