Tuesday, March 29, 2011

my day.

I'm not really in a writing mood, but I don't want to start my homework for the night yet.

I haven't done anything productive today. I took a business test (and cried to myself the whole way through... we'll see how that grade turns out at the end of the week...), died slowly during the next class (just finished a test last time in that class, so it was all new notes. always an assured boring time), then did nothing.

Instead of doing my homework, I then went over to a friend's apartment to watch a movie. Then I took a nap. Then I ate lunch with a friend. Then I went to an accounting SI, which was good and productive I guess, but I don't feel like I learned much. We just started a new unit in there, too, so there wasn't much to review.

Then I went to a baseball game. I love baseball, but it was 55 degrees and threatening to rain. And we were down by 4. So we left. Exciting story, huh? But after that, we went back to an apartment to watch the lady bears play those incestuous pig farmers. I don't want to talk about that.

Anyway, after that sad game, I came back to my room, where I sit now, since it was 11.

So that was my day. So productive, don't you think? But now I have all this homework that I haven't done. Naturally, now I'm going to go.... take a shower! Then talk to friends on facebook! Yes, that's a perfectly logical thing to do! Homework isn't worth that much anyway...

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Hey. What about after college?

How much does your college education influence your job opportunities?

Like, really. Does it really mean that much? Everyone has a college education. It's not that big of a deal to get through college, and there are perfectly intelligent people that don't go through college because they can't pay for it. When you talk to successful people in high places and ask them how they got to be where they are, you never hear, "well, I tried really hard in college and just got this awesome job after I got my masters." It just never happens. What I've decided is that job opportunities are about 60% who you know and another 20% how much people like you.

You can learn on the job. No one goes to CEO training. You don't take a CFO class. You take general classes that apply to many scenarios in college, getting a background knowledge, and then they say, go get a job. Sure, you can get a basic, lowly job with strictly an education. But to get a once in a lifetime kinda position, it's things like being up to date on how well the Rangers are doing this year, being able to tell that joke at the appropriate time, knowing where the closest place to get a drink is. It's the life knowledge stuff. Sports stuff. Humor. Charisma.

Then once you have the job opportunity, there's the other important personality traits that you need to keep your job that also have nothing to do with college: being a hard worker. Getting shit done on time. Being on top of things. Sure, those classes from college are going to be the basis of whatever you're doing, but the things you need to for your specific job are going to be much narrower and much more specific and in depth. Getting those skills happens a little during classes, but I'm gonna guess lots of it happens on the job.

Am I saying ignore college? Not at all. It's important, especially now that most of us are here and paying for it. And it's a good place to practice all those traits like trying hard. What I'm saying is to keep college in perspective. There's only so much college can teach you. Who you know and what they think of you is, in my opinion, what is going to make the difference. Just like it did in middle school.
Aren't circles fun?

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

quick update so you know I'm not dead.

Hey everyone, sorry if I haven't been putting up posts as often as you'd like me to... its not as often as I'd like me to either, but my life is just really full this spring.

OH YEAH. ITS SPRING NOW. Thank God... that whole cold thing was starting to tick me off. This past weekend was awesome. Disc golf in the park, followed by a barbeque/pool party. That just doesn't happen when there's a wind chill of -5 outside. But its finally starting to warm up again.. like, 50's and 60's at night, which is just perfect as far as I'm concerned.

But back on topic, I really have been busy. School is consuming... I have 3 tests in the next few days, all of which are sure to take double digit hours of study time. Yay college. Accounting is a bitch... I need to really study for that one, since I made a 66 on the last test in there. That isn't so bad until you realize we only have 4 tests, including the final. There's daily work, but its worth 6% of the grade, so so much for that. The other classes are pretty much the same way, just without the D on a test. But when everyone has the same number of tests, spread out evenly over the same amount of time... you end up with weeks like this that are just test weeks, with 4 or 5 tests all in the same 3 days.

Apart from school, its all been hanging out with KPsis and Tau Betas. I dunno if I've mentioned tau beta sigma before... they're the sister sorority to our fraternity. Anyway, I've been going to baseball games and going to watch movies at apartments and having study groups and playing frisbee and whatever else with these guys, and its just been a blast.

Unfortunately, that leaves little time to sit at a computer and type away for all of you. The side effect of having a life is not having enough time to talk about it. How ironic, don't you think? I also find that the better my life is going, the less I feel like I have to write. I should be full of fun, insightful things for people when I feel good, but I'm much better at bitching and moaning about my life. My life is just... normal now. I guess. I'm content. I don't have anything to complain about besides school, like most other people. What's the fun in that?

I could go complain about how I don't know what to do with my life. How I feel like I have no purpose. How I feel like everyone's smarter than me. But I've beat all those to death more than once, and need to find new material. But with life like it is... I just don't have any. And I guess that's a good thing? I don't know. I'm sure it's not nearly as fun for all of you. Maybe I'll share my views on something nice and controversial. But even then, I don't feel like there's much to talk about. Any suggestions? Feel free to comment with whatever. In the mean time, I have to go to class.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

stealing.

So a big part of my life right now is that typical college self-realization time. Starting around the end of last semester, I finally decided to stop blindly following what everyone wanted and expected of me. I started thinking for myself. It was kinda a first.

And it's lead me to think a lot about my morals and what my actual concept of right and wrong is. Just because the Bible says it's wrong isn't enough for me. It says don't kill, but it also says you have to show the priest your shirt if its growing mildew on it. Don't steal, but don't cut your hair or beard either. People say you either follow the whole Bible or none of it. Believe it all or none of it.

I think that's silly. It's wrong to kill people. I mean, from a moral standpoint, that's just not okay. It doesn't matter if you read it in the Bible or not, you know its not okay to go shoot people on purpose. But if I believe that stealing is wrong because God said so, then do I have to believe that I can't cut my beard?

I just feel that if it's come to that, I should probably decide what I think is right and wrong. So I've been thinking about it for awhile.

Lets take stealing. The... issue of the day, as it were. Stealing is wrong, right? Is it wrong to steal to live? To support a family? And what if you're not stealing from anyone in particular? What if it's a street sign?

I've decided that stealing from a person is wrong. If it hurts someone else on a personal level, I think it's wrong, whatever action it is... stealing, drugs, whatever. But right now we're talking about stealing. Stealing directly from a person, like, out of their wallet or someone's purse or taking something from their house... that's wrong. But if I'm taking something from Walmart, who does it hurt? I guarantee you it doesn't come out of anyone's paycheck. I actually learned this in accounting... they have a missing inventory account. An allowance, if you will, for stolen goods. They actually don't lose any of the reported revenue if I steal things from Walmart, especially considering they round all their financial figures to the nearest million. Between you and me, I think Walmart could use a little less revenue. They're taking over the damn world. But that's beside the point. The point is, no one's losing out if I take things.

And street signs? Same thing. I don't see anything wrong with taking street signs. It's a game, really. And one in which no one gets hurt. I could, but that's the exciting part. If you were to ask why, I'd say for fun. No, I don't need street signs. No, in no way are they vital to my life. But it's for the thrill. It's just a game with real consequences, so you have to play a lot more carefully. Would I take a DO NOT ENTER sign? No, that's stupid. They need that sign for public safety. Would I take a street name? Sure. Would I take a one way sign off a pole that got blown over by the wind? Yep. No one's using it; what do they care?

It's not that tricky. If it hurts someone else, don't do it. It puts myself at risk? Oh well. That's my choice. I should be able to make that choice. I couldn't live with myself if I knew I was physically hurting someone else, or financially burdening someone else, because of my actions. I have morals. They just run a tad more complicated than a simple "Do Not Steal."

And what about the things that are questionable? Are internet downloads immoral? What if I really, really want Toy Story 3? It's only a few clicks away. A few nights ago I watched This Is Spinal Tap off of Project Free TV with my big sis. Was that wrong? Is torrenting Christian music bad? You know, Christian music is actually the most illegally downloaded genre of music. Ironic, huh?

And how about this scenario... my friend comes in from out of town. We want to go see the basketball game between our respective college teams. Baylor students get in free, but he would have to pay for a general admissions ticket. All a student needs to get in is a student ID. Another friend of mine from Baylor hates basketball and surely isn't attending. Is it wrong if my out-of-state friend takes my Baylor friend's place in the student section by borrowing his ID for the night and getting in in disguise as a Baylor student? Is that stealing?

I'm not so sure. I think it's fine. I don't see a problem with it. The only injustice there is that the Jayhawks had one more fan see them kick the pants off our man bears.

Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts.. as always, feel free to comment away. I'm sure I've managed to piss someone off with this rant. I guess I'll save my other opinions for other Issue of the Day's. Until then... toodles.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

I'm backkkkk

Hey everyone!

Oh wow, it's been awhile. I did give you fair warning this time, though. It was a planned blogspot fast. I really didn't have time to do my blog justice, so I decided it'd be best to just put it on hold.

And how I have missed it. And all of you. Truly I have. However, I can now proudly call myself a member of Kappa Kappa Psi. God, what a process... it's very sad I can't really talk about it too much, but I can say... it was a hell of a lot of fun, and so so time consuming. We had a few all nighters, and the rest were an average of 4 hours of sleep a night. And that's just pledging and homework and class. That was my life for the past 5 weeks.

Then it at last came to an end, and we celebrated. I dunno how much you all know about the way I party.. I can't remember what I've said about it. But I figure I've got nothing to lose by being honest to a whopping 21 people on the internet. (Sure, I know a bunch of you, like, outside of teh interwebz, but its whatever. You should probably know this too.)

Sorry for all the hype, its really not that awesome. My friend got an ounce of really nice weed, which was the glorious part one of last weekend. I dunno all your opinions on pot, but I'm an advocate. This rant needs to be saved for another time, but it's not nearly as bad for you as half the legal things people do, like drink.

Which came after that. The party was less than awesome, I must admit. Drunken alumni... sure, its entertaining, but this one kid got a bit obnoxious - which is saying something, considering I was stoned. Another pledge brother of mine turned 21 during the pledging, and we couldn't drink or smoke or do anything really during pledging, so he had his 21st birthday party along with the party I was at. He drank quite a bit, and it was quite amusing. I passed out on his couch and woke up the next morning sometime around noon and went to my big sister's apartment for some lunch.

Oh, right, I have KPsi bigs now. A big brother and a big sister. We got them at the beginning of the whole process, and they're there to be the good guys. People to help you, listen to you rant, bake cookies for you, give you advice, buy you food... just whatever. They're automatic family. I know I probably shouldn't pick favorites, but my big sister is pretty awesome. She thinks along the same lines that I do, which really helps. I can tell her whatever and she understands and can help.

But yeah, last weekend was pretty awesome. I really enjoyed myself and my non-pledging. Everything's back to good, normalness for the week, then its spring break. I'm staying for the weekend, to celebrate properly before going home, where my parents watch me like a hawk to make sure I'm not doing anything sketchy....like the entirety of last weekend. And that's fine by me. I'm glad they care... but I'm staying for the weekend, THEN going home.

This may possibly be the most boring spring break ever, if it weren't for 2 things. First, this weekend, as mentioned. Second, I may (hopefully) get to go to see Anna in Arkansas next Thursday. Maybe. There's some debate about the purchasing of a plane ticket... my mom doesn't see the point in paying a hundred bucks to go see my best friend. Silly mother.

On the topic of Anna, if anyone hasn't heard (which they probably haven't since I haven't written anything lately...), Anna and I broke up. It wasn't a bad break up, obviously, since I want to go see her like none other this next week, but it was still a break up. It still sucks.

So that's my recent life recap. Pledging was fun but sucked at the same time, I'm in Kappa Kappa Psi now, I have awesome bigs, I'm single, I'm going to have a great weekend and hopefully an awesome NEXT weekend with Anna. Yep.