I find myself angry at yet again references to "Happy Memorial Day". I blogged about this before, but I feel it stands repeating. Memorial Day is not, I repeat NOT a HAPPY Holiday. It's not a holiday at all. It's a day of solemn remembrance for our war dead, not another trashy excuse for a shopping spree. I am disgusted by retailers and customers alike reducing something that should be at the very least observed into the "start of summer" and "let's go shopping WOO HOO!". I received an email from Andrew Toyota in Milwaukee hoping I am "enjoying my memorial day". Two things are wrong with this statement. How does one "enjoy" a day that reminds me of my WWII veteran father, who passed away in Oct of 2002? Or the hundreds of thousands of war dead around the county and buried on foreign soil? What makes retailers think I "enjoy" Memorial Day? And the second thing wrong? They didn't capitalize Memorial Day. So, not only do they have absolutely no respect for the men and women who died in the service of OUR country, but they can't even use proper punctuation and grammar?
The gloves are off. The next time I get wished a "happy Memorial Day", I will not hesitate to tell the person why, exactly, they are an idiot. And maybe suggest they look up the word Memorial in the dictionary. I'm done with being nice about this. There is a reason why Taps is played at the observances and cemeteries, and it's not to signal the start of the shopping summer season.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
End of semester
Wow, it's been awhile since I've blogged, but I'm guessing that no one has noticed (or read my blog judging by the lack of comments left). The spring 2010 semester is drawing down to a close and will soon be a distant memory. I enjoyed my classes this semester; I took mass communications and American Literature. The Am Lit class was online and the mass comm class was at campus. I've been aware since going back to college that my age is roughly double the traditional student. I usually don't think all that much about it as after a few classes it isn't really relevant to what I was learning. However, with mass comm, I became acutely aware of my age. This class was a walk down memory lane and thankfully, the teacher was just a little bit older than myself so I didn't feel like a complete fossil. He made jokes of how old he was, but at one point in the class the age of 30 came up and one of the girls made an exclamation of sticking out her tongue and saying "yuk, that's so old".
Ah, youth. I can remember being a kid and wanting to be older. Of being a teenager and wanting to be "legal". But at some point, probably around my mid-20's I stopped wanting to be older. It was such a gradual shift in my thought process, I don't even fully recall stopping the wish-process of aging. I know that my 20's were probably the busiest time of my life. I graduated from MATC and was recruited for my first full-time job, I met and married Scott, we moved twice, we bought a house and all the accouterments that go with it, we bought a new car, my mother and uncle passed away, and I started quilting. In re-reading my list, thankfully most of it is happy and experiences that people usually look forward too. But in my mass comm class, I became aware of how disadvantaged I truly was.
For starters, the concept of cellular phones was pretty much a military application and maybe some people in very large cities (New York) had them. And they were HUGE. Like bread box huge. You could only place a call and don't even think about texting or taking pictures, let alone surfing something called a web. I got my first cell phone in 2003 way after it had become a way of life for many people. I was out of my 20's by then and only used it for making phone calls of an urgent nature. I didn't (and still don't) like using cell phones because of the poor sound quality and lag times. However, every where I go on campus (and in life) someone has a cell phone stuck to their head or hand. It is an extension of their body like clothing.
When we got to the topic of computers and the internet, the impact to society was lost to the generation that has never known a time without either. It's always been there for them, they have never known a time when accessing a computer for whatever they need wasn't available to them. The closest they come to that now, is a dead cell phone battery in a power outage. But as the teacher tried to impress upon them the miracle of technology that is a way of life now, all he got in return were bored looks and silence. I was their age when the world wide web was catching on like wildfire and the common masses were turning to cyberspace (haven't heard that term in awhile, I bet) for entertainment and information. There were no commerce sites yet, so no shopping. Unlike TV and radio where my parents and grandparents marveled at that technology, it doesn't change much. Both are pretty much one way signals and for years never really changed. But the internet evolves and with each technology jump becomes something that the 20 somethings of today expect instead of marvel at.
So, that's another semester down on the long journey of my college career. I'm still amazed at how many students text while in class. At one point, a student was texting her boyfriend during class that she was mad at the professor because he said something unflattering about Disney. She is a self-admitted fanatic of Disney, and defends any and all aspersions cast about said company. So, when the professor said he couldn't understand why food has to cost so much at a Disney park, she argued with him and then said she was texting her boyfriend that she was mad at the teacher. And she did. Cell phone in hand, she texted away. I was stunned at the level of impertinence and self-absorption that prevented her from waiting until the end of class to tell her boyfriend all about it. Nope, it's got to be told RIGHT NOW. Patience and courtesy. More casualties of the internet.
With that thought, I need to post my blog and go online to do my American Lit homework.
Ah, youth. I can remember being a kid and wanting to be older. Of being a teenager and wanting to be "legal". But at some point, probably around my mid-20's I stopped wanting to be older. It was such a gradual shift in my thought process, I don't even fully recall stopping the wish-process of aging. I know that my 20's were probably the busiest time of my life. I graduated from MATC and was recruited for my first full-time job, I met and married Scott, we moved twice, we bought a house and all the accouterments that go with it, we bought a new car, my mother and uncle passed away, and I started quilting. In re-reading my list, thankfully most of it is happy and experiences that people usually look forward too. But in my mass comm class, I became aware of how disadvantaged I truly was.
For starters, the concept of cellular phones was pretty much a military application and maybe some people in very large cities (New York) had them. And they were HUGE. Like bread box huge. You could only place a call and don't even think about texting or taking pictures, let alone surfing something called a web. I got my first cell phone in 2003 way after it had become a way of life for many people. I was out of my 20's by then and only used it for making phone calls of an urgent nature. I didn't (and still don't) like using cell phones because of the poor sound quality and lag times. However, every where I go on campus (and in life) someone has a cell phone stuck to their head or hand. It is an extension of their body like clothing.
When we got to the topic of computers and the internet, the impact to society was lost to the generation that has never known a time without either. It's always been there for them, they have never known a time when accessing a computer for whatever they need wasn't available to them. The closest they come to that now, is a dead cell phone battery in a power outage. But as the teacher tried to impress upon them the miracle of technology that is a way of life now, all he got in return were bored looks and silence. I was their age when the world wide web was catching on like wildfire and the common masses were turning to cyberspace (haven't heard that term in awhile, I bet) for entertainment and information. There were no commerce sites yet, so no shopping. Unlike TV and radio where my parents and grandparents marveled at that technology, it doesn't change much. Both are pretty much one way signals and for years never really changed. But the internet evolves and with each technology jump becomes something that the 20 somethings of today expect instead of marvel at.
So, that's another semester down on the long journey of my college career. I'm still amazed at how many students text while in class. At one point, a student was texting her boyfriend during class that she was mad at the professor because he said something unflattering about Disney. She is a self-admitted fanatic of Disney, and defends any and all aspersions cast about said company. So, when the professor said he couldn't understand why food has to cost so much at a Disney park, she argued with him and then said she was texting her boyfriend that she was mad at the teacher. And she did. Cell phone in hand, she texted away. I was stunned at the level of impertinence and self-absorption that prevented her from waiting until the end of class to tell her boyfriend all about it. Nope, it's got to be told RIGHT NOW. Patience and courtesy. More casualties of the internet.
With that thought, I need to post my blog and go online to do my American Lit homework.
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