- Total Posts: 3
Yeah. Ya'll know me. And if you don't, feel fortunate.
Author: Eric
After a 2 year life filled with entertainment and an undisclosed number of pirated songs, my dear 4th generation iPod suddenly and inexplicably died. It’s last few months were good, and despite it’s new incarnations (i.e. iPod Video, ipod Photo, etc.) it remained functional and entertaining the whole time. So I’ll have to drop 300 bones on a new one quite soon. Here’s the scary part.
It was painful. Oh so painful. Perhaps I’ve developed a soft spot for the thing, but I was rather upset not only by it beaing broken, but by my reaction. The damn thing was like a 3rd arm. A music playing, backlit 3rd am. This has made me realize how dependant we’ve become on our gadgets. Be it cellphones, iPods, or otherwise.
I wondered what it would be like not having a cell phone for a day. Given the way I’ve adjusted my life since getting one, it would be tough not to have one. The average day I figured between getting to and from school, coordinating with friends and classmates, I make about 7 calls a day. Althought the calls arent generally over 3 minutes, were I using a payphone, that would still be $3.50 a day to communicate outside the home. Damn.
What was it like for people hundreds of years ago? No phones, no music besides what they could sing? Sure, they didn’t mind, but then again, they would probably consider an iPod an evil box of the Devil. But by our standards, it would suck to be them.
So as I sit here, taking a break from painting my deck (which my dear mother has promised me a sizeable amout of cash to do), I’m using the zenith of caveman technology; the Sony Discman. Although different, it satisifies my continous disillusionment fix. Quite frankly, I probably don’t need a new iPod, but I’ll end up doing it anyway.
Ahh, Standardized Testing. Weird schedules(waaaayyy too long periods), boring tests, and just an all around feeling of monotony. Let me paint this mental picture for you.
8:31 A.M.: Room 212…(I think) Ms. Porter is sitting there waiting for everyone to show up. She starts calling off peoples names, I’d say about a fifth of the class wasn’t there when the bell rang. So Ian and I are sitting talking about…Oh…Some darned thing and answering as our names are called off. About 10-12 minutes into class, a girl walks in. Now when certain members of my class do anything…I mean ANYTHING, all Hell breaks loose. I think it took about 5 minutes for Ms. Porter to restore order. She says in a voice that just tells you that she has no control: 
“Please, this is my first time doing STAR testing. So please be quiet.” I think it actually got louder at that point
We finally shut up and got started on the test. I gotta tell you, just reading the examples makes the whole test worthwhile. Solely from reading the language arts section I learned about Carrier Pigeons, Seeing Eye Horses, Air Force One, and The Dangers of Diving Equipment. I have to admit though, some of those examples are pretty entertaining. I especially like the inspirational stories. Like the one about how someone would rather be a weed than a flower (read: I am ugly so I’ll make the best of it). And the ones where we had to figure out whether or not “communitys” was spelled correctly.
And then there was “The Mint Snowball.” It’s the heartwarming story of a girl who’s waxing nostalgic about something she never tried. Now maybe I’m being critical, but I’m not going to cry just because I never got to try a family recipe. (Although I must say the mint snowball sounds strangely appetizing)
So I’m sittin’ there, decoding the mysteries of Air Force One, when I hear noise. Just that girl in the back with her headphones up way too loud. Then she’s sitting there braiding another girl’s hair and they’re now singing. Wonderful…
Jump ahead to when Ian and I have both finished. The class is getting pretty frickin’ antsy. I’m sitting near the door and it’s open. Rees is sitting closest to the door in the room directly across the hall. Naturally, I strike up a game of rock, paper, scissors with him. The game was going quite well until one party got beaten and during his reaction to the defeat, got a funny look from the teacher. It was about that point Ms. Porter closed the door. Big mistake. Because the test is over, people now want to “go to the bathroom.” Now I’m not questioning the morality of my classmates, but I know they sure as hell aren’t going to the bathroom. So I’m sitting there looking the other way. I’m not sure of exactly the sequence of events but here’s the sounds I heard.
“Ms Porter can I go to the bathroom? Thanks.” tap tap tap click SLAM! (from outside the hallway) “Yo dawg!” Thump! About 10 minutes farther into this way too long period, said student comes back in, leaving their companion at the door to make funny faces through the glass.
—Break-time—
Back to class, finish the test. Doodle for a while. This is when the sh** hits the fan. So Ms. Porter disappears and some guy comes to take her place. This guy’s got less control than Porter. I commented to Ian that this guy’s a total weenie but Ian swears he’s cool. So the people are eating, yelling, making a lot of noise. The eating was weird. This girl in front of me’s swigging a Sprite and dipping Flamin’ Cheetos in Cream Cheese (add that to the list of things that makes me shiver). So the music gets loud again and the Weenie man yells at us
“If you don’t turn it down, I’ll confiscate it!” He gave up eventually. Because the class sure as hell didn’t care.
God I don’t know if I can take 2 more days of this.
Gaaa!
The Voysey Inheritance. Possibly the worst play I have ever seen!
For the actors: It was 2 hours, 20 minutes of acting, drama, comedy, and well written scripts.
For the audience: It was 2 hours, 20 minutes of yawning, head scratching, nail picking, sleeping, and listening to the old people in the front row yawn.
There were a few odd things about this play
- Every male in the play was bald or balding.And the least bald of them was the oldest one.
- I guess exactly how the play was going to happen from the moment it started. And I was right.
- The actors couldn’t hold an English accent.They kept slipping up or it sounded fake.
All and all, the people sitting around me were much more interesting. And the high point of my day was watching Harry be Lord of the Pigeons in the park.