| Reality... Or the world as observed by me |
| April 10, 2004 1:23 pm So last week was hell week. Literally. But its over, I survived...my grades are battered, but breathing...and next week is a new week. I hosted two prospective students over the past week. Had one last night who was much cooler than the one I had on Wednesday. Nothing against the other girl, but ya gotta talk sometime. Anyway, I took both of them to the Art Museum and looked around. Last night I took my prospie to the house to meet some of my sisters. We hung out for a while and then they drove us around Severance Town Center and through Coventry and Little Italy and stuff. She enjoyed it. It was kinda sad though because all of the girls at the house were seniors...sniff... so they'll be leaving soon. I'll be sad to see them go. Especially Sarah and Tracy. Tracy is everything that AXO should be about and has such class and grace that it humbles me. Sarah, on the same token, is sweet and so genuine. THey're both amazing. Anyway, I love cleveland when its nice out. It just makes me happy to see a blue sky and college students lounging beneath it. Granted, I should be trying to catch up on bio...but its a saturday. No one wants to do work on a saturday. Hmm...maybe I'll go do some laundry. Good plan. Ciao. |
| April 11, 2004 6:40 pm Ok, so this needs to be addressed, as it has come up on more than one occasion. I am not, nor do I ever strive to be, politically correct. I recently have had two experiences with being or not being politically correct, I do not like it. The first episode occurred during greek week when I posted an onine quiz with an answer stereotyping a certain sorority. ON the one hand, I do see how my comment was untimely and un-panhellenic. I must say that on retrospect that I am somewhat dissappointed in myself for having stereotyping them, as I always used to try avoiding such generalizations. However, it also dissappoints me that I was asked, not forced, simply asked to remove the comment from my quiz. In true-panhellenic spirit I removed it to not only foster the spirit of greek week but to also ensure that neither myself nor my sisters in my sorority would be penalized for the quiz. The second experience took place quite recently when I was hanging out in a friend's room who was online in a Christian-focused chatroom. He, himself, is not christian, nor was the other fellow who was with him, and for the record, neither am I. But I digress... So while my friend was in the chatroom he was trying to instigate an argument on the grounds of religion with some of the people in the chatroom. However, all of the people in the chatroom would respond with "Hallelujah, praise be to the lord, jesus loves you," and all that jazz. As it turns out, you can also talk on the chat room, as in with a microphone and talk. So then he proceeded to sing an excerpt from "I wanna lick lick you from your head to toes..." which was entirely inappropriate for the chatroom and was quite insensitive. BUT it was as funny as hell. And we all laughed. So the problem...or i guess issue came up when I tried to tell the story at dinner tonite. Well, I shouldn't say problem, because it didn't turn into a problem, it just turned into something I discovered my friends and I differ on. I told the story with an intent of getting a laugh, but when my friends did not find it funny, I asked why. As it turns out, they found it to be somewhat offensive. For the record, only one of the three is Christian. So, I do understand how one could find it offensive, and they do have a point in the fact that it was a christian chatroom intended for use for people who could pray or praise god online... and that they were probably offended or at least taken aback by the incident. ON the other hand...IT IS A FREE F*ING COUNTRY and as long as the internet falls under the free speech article that despite contrary belief still DOES exist in the Constitution, one does have a right to go into such a chatroom, sing such a song simply for a good laugh. Its not like the internet is the holy house of God or anything...there's no sacred praying or ritual going on...only people mindlessly and repeatedly exclaiming "GOD IS GOOD... LOVE THE LORD AS HE LOVES YOU..." etc, etc. And so what if its a jackass kind of thing to do...to go into a chatroom like that simply to berate and make fun of someone's faith....as long as you don't become violent or threaten somebody, I don't see how there's any foul. And if those people are seriously hurt by it, then they'd better toughen up, yo, cuz its a tough world out there. You can try to make everything politcally correct to protect people's interests and to make sure no one's feelings get hurt, but when you start taking away or even start questioning people's right to say certain things, then I have issues. I don't like the fact that one must now check everything that comes out of one's mouth trying to think who it might offend...its unamerican. The moment everyone tries to always be polite and never say anything that could offend someone, the moment I move to Canada. And I know that this turned into a rant, but I don't care...i have the right to rant dammit! Anyway, yea, I know that was a lot of bullshit that all kinda spurred out of one minor incident or two, but it bothers me. It bothers me perhaps more than ever because this isn't just an isolated incident...its a nationwide thing now...people have to watch what they say...and it sucks. Its nit-picky and trivial but yet somehow this idea is slowly taking away our right to free speech and people's inclination to accept that right and use it. Again, though, for the record, for those of you who do know me, I do not go around berating everyone's beliefs and go about being a jackass to people just for a laugh. And in retrospect both of the above mentioned acts were inappropriate and tasteless and not something I would want to be remembered for, BUT I am not at all ashamed for defending those actions. As Voltaire once said, "I do not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say them." So anyway, thats my editorial of the week. Now its off to study some bio...yay! Take care. |
| April 12, 2004 11:48 pm Well, guys, I gotta say, I got a lot of hits after that nice little rant I posted. Do ya like the controversy? lol... :) Anyway, today I did nothing but work on homework and stuff all day. ALL day. Which is something of a surprise, for me too. Let's be honest people, since I got to college I have done less work daily than I did in high school...a lot less. I rarely crack open my Calculus book, hardly glance at the SAGES reading, and definitely only do Latin when I'm bored off my arse...(just watched Braveheart this weekend). So yea, Senioritis doesn't go away apparently. I'm a freshman in college and still have it...got it bad. So perhaps its no wonder that my grades here aren't all that impressive, and that I always stress out about the test I just took and didn't study for. But eh, oh well. But for the next two weeks, all that's going to change. I'm actually going to read chapters BEFORE class and do well on the finals. That is my goal, I may have slacked off during the semester, but by God, I'm going to finish strong. As for the rest of life...well, it just skips along the jolly road of life. I'm finding that some feelings and issues don't quite go away altogether, but I'm thinking, hoping, I can deal with them anyway. And I'm also looking forward to a potential visit from an old friend on Friday. It may not happen, too many factors involved, but if it does there'll be good stories to share. Hmm...what else? Oh yea, the weather has actually been decent. I keep having this insane, deep desire to play soccer. I don't think it'll be quite spring until I play a little game of soccer. I need it. Stay happy. SPRING IS HERE!!! (for real this time) |