I often find myself staring blankly at my Facebook profile trying to think of the perfect way to describe my current mood or situation. The problem is this: usually I update my status when I find myself with some time to kill. And when I have time to kill, I am not really doing anything, so my status when searching for a status is typically "searching for a status." But I can't put that down, so I have to come up with some sort of clever anecdote or phrase to put out there. It's a bigger deal than it should be for me because my status on Facebook is posted right there beside my name and my picture. So every status I choose is out there for a world of people to make judgments on me. Also, I face the problem of negotiating statuses between social networking sites. Here is my basic rule of thumb...
1) Facebook - status can be fairly insignificant but must have some sort of clever twist. "Just went grocery shopping and the hottie at the register gave me his number." or something like that. It's gotta have an angle, if only a small one.
2) Twitter - Must be significant. Must be clever. Must evoke some sort of catharsis from the reader. Must provide some sort of insight on life. "'Hahah' = I genuinely think what you said is funny / 'Hahaha' = I'm just placating you" (compliments of JDuboff)
3) Gchat status - should be a big, overarching status that sums up your life situation at the moment "Tis the year of bowls, booze and Broadway"
I see a lot of grumpy, unhappy people passing through the restaurant. I waited on a guy yesterday who sat down, I came right up to him and took his order and two minutes later I saw him talking to the host and he ended up moving to sit on the other side of the restaurant. I went up to him and said, "Too cold up there, eh?" because I knew several people were complaining about the temperature. And he took several sharp intakes of breath (like it was the Arctic circle up there or something), grabbed his chest and said, "The service here is terrible. How are you supposed to see me with that wall right there? And you never brought me my bread and butter." As if I had been ignoring him for hours! He had just sat down!
I wanted to say, "You need to calm down, sir. I have absolutely no control over the architectural design of this restaurant and you didn't order bread and butter. You are my only table and I just got here and I would remember if you ordered bread and butter." But I all I said was "Yes, sir." And I made it a point to be extra nice to him for the rest of his meal because ya know what, sir? Life is far to short to be grumpy. As the Dalai Lama said "Happiness is not ready made. It comes from your own actions." In other words, it is something that needs to be worked towards and I'm working for it because I choose happiness, I choose confidence, I choose smiling.
1) When I am sitting next to someone on the bus or train and I wanna look at them or see what they're reading or texting but I know it'd be super awkward if I did.
2) When I am caught walking behind a smoker. Or if I am just caught walking behind a slow person.
3) When people are standing in front of exactly what I need at the grocery store and I either have to reach around them or ask them to move. I always pull the whole, "Oh I'm just browsing around the stuff right in front of you" move.
4) When I pour a bowl of cereal and then realize the milk is bad.
5) When a DVD starts skipping at the most pivotal point in the movie.
So I am not one that deals with changes very well. Of course, I get used to them and then don't remember what my life was like before them but whatever, it's still very disorienting when major things in my life change. For instance, Itunes recently changed its icon on my desktop...that threw me for a loop. And Gmail recently made some format changes and now I always click on the wrong buttons thinking they are the ones that used to be there. Finally, Facebook is always changing and this has caused me some real stress of late.
I liked the format where you could see all of the events you were invited to on one page, but now the events are all listed in one tiny little box on the edge of the screen and I forget that they are there. So last night I had some extra time to kill on Facebook, and I realized that I had a large number of events that I hadn't reconciled. So I had to go through every single one and select attending, not or maybe. This was an unreasonably stressful time for me. Especially since many of the events were for things like breast cancer, or mission trips, or gay rights, things that I want to support but can't, don't have the time, or I'm too lazy or poor! So here is what I normally do:
1) If it's not applicable to me at all, I click not attending and call it a day.
2) If it's not applicable to me but it's for a good cause, but I know I can't go, I'll click maybe attending.
3) If it's applicable to me, but I can't go and I know it's a good cause, I'll click not attending and write on the wall why I can't attend.
4) Sometimes, though, if it's for something that I could potentially attend, but I don't want to go because I'm lazy, but I should go because it's for cancer or something, I'll just click Attending and not go...
This last one fills me with so much guilt. STOP MAKING ME GUILTY FACEBOOK!
I am fortunate enough to live in the up and coming South End of Boston. I say "up and coming" because the area used to be super-duper sketch but then the gays moved in and made everything a little more...well, gay! Unfortunately, though, the gayness hasn't quite reached my apartment. I live right on the line between yuppie and scary. So I hear a lot of public domestic disputes outside my window ("Gimme mah phone, bitch!") but I can also walk less than a block to the nicest Spanish tapas restaurant in Boston.
This is all to preface a thought I had as I left my apartment the other day. I love the mornings and I love stepping outside my apartment and breathing in that first breath of morning air. The morning air where I live, though, is very different from the morning air where Chris lives, in Cambridge. When I leave Chris' apartment in the mornings there are birds chirping, people walking their dogs, people jogging, business people shuffling off to work etc. When I leave my apartment there are cars honking, pollution floating, homeless people screaming at each other, and buses roaring by. I immediately feel like I need to take another shower when I leave my apartment.
I suppose both types of morning air have their appeal. Sometimes, it's kinda nice to just be hit in the face with the dirt and bustle of city life first thing in the morning, but every now and then, I just want to walk out to morning air that is a little more...gay.
These signs are posted all over the Emerson bathrooms. I have a very strong urge to make a sign to put right next to it that says "Got Nubs? Kill Yourself."
7 Habits of a Highly Ineffective Teacher
You'd think when you come to college that all of your professors are going to be really amazing, smart people and awesome teachers. Unfortunately, that is the rudest awakening of all. Some of them are of course, but many professors simply lack basic teaching skills. They are just knowledgeable in their particular field of study (most of them) but they don't know how to best convey that information. Here are some personal examples of great ways to lose a student's trust/respect:
1) Trying to act cool by "connecting" with your students in awkward ways. For instance, constantly making weird jokes about sex and college hook-ups (and assuming everyone will find it funny). You really gotta earn a group's trust and respect before something like this becomes funny.
2) Trying to remember the names of all of your students when you have zero talent for remembering names. You'll just end up making a fool of yourself - "Ummm...are you Zach?" "No." "Oh, what's your name, again?"
3) Trying to do a PowerPoint presentation or show a film or something without coming in early and figuring out how the technology works ("Oh, I need a password?") This is a biggie. It always ends with some student awkwardly having to get up and show the teacher how everything works.
4) Making slides with a dark blue background and black font, then asking if anyone can read it (or writing on the board with a yellow marker).
5) Not knowing how to pronounce all of the words you typed in your PowerPoint or constantly stumbling over words like "heredity."
6) General unpreparedness. This means not forgetting the tests at home, not taking 3 months to grade a paper, not saying "um" a lot and forgetting what you were talking about.
7) Finally, and this is the best way to lose respect, saying things like "You all know this stuff better than I do." "I'm not an expert on this." or "It's really complicated, I don't know all the details."
