Celebrity TV

So my mom likes to just put on the TV, then either not watch it by playing on her computer, or not watch it by talking on the phone in another room for hours. Well this leads to me background watching whatever is on. Today I experienced Ice Loves Coco.

This was a greatly baffling experience, how can people watch this? Why do people care about what random celebrities are doing in their personal life? Oh man, Ice T needs some "me" time, and his nephews are annoying him, this is sooo interesting! Now the dog is swimming, OMG I never could have seen that coming, what a TWIST!

Ok, time for random baseless conjecture. People who watch this are thinking, "oh, those people are just like us, but with more money, I could totally be them. They are real people with real problems". Now that only explains why they would watch one episode, because after that, they have already made this realization, and are no longer learning anything. So there must be something in the first episode they watch that hooks them. Something that makes them think, "I want to watch this again, I want to see more of their lives.

For some people, it is probably the hot chicks that inevitably show up. For others it might be a sick sort of pleasure from watching the pain of people better off than they are, they might think "it's nice to see that life isn't perfect for anyone, so my problems don't seem to unjustified". Another group might be reveling in just how stupid the people in the show are.

Well I know one thing for sure, I will never watch one of these shows by choice.

Treadmill

I was running on the treadmill in my apartment gym, and it started lightning-ing out. It then occurs to me, "what would happen if the power went out while I was running 8 mph?" Would I just barrel into the front of the treadmill as it suddenly stops moving from under me?

Perhaps.

How to misconstrue

When I say (type) "What's up with you?", how do you read it?

There are two main ways, the first is "What new things are happening in your life?"(usually as a follow up to the received what's up question) , and the second is "Why are you acting unusually?"

Now I usually assume that the person I type it to knows which one I'm talking about, but there is always that little hesitation where I think, what if they interpret it wrong, I'm gonna look weird and get a confused response. So I think about rephrasing, but then the rephrase doesn't sound natural and cool, so I leave it, and hope.

Now its been done to death, but I will again mention sarcasm. It's SOOO easy to misconstrue sarcasm in typed form. It's AWESOME! You can say anything, and have it NOT understood! It is my LEAST favorite part of the internet! I try to use it ALL the time, in every possible way just to exacerbate the AWESOMENESS!!!

Apartment Gym

I have recently started going to the gym in my apartment complex. This is a very strange situation, because the social interactions are very hindered.

First, a lot of people(including me) tend to use the treadmill heavily. While on the treadmill, there is no real way to talk to anyone, or for anyone to talk to you. Even if you are not listening to headphones, the sound of your running plus the aura of concentration make you unapproachable. The only chance for a real interaction is if two people happen to exit the treadmill at about the same time, or perhaps if they are using adjacent machines. But in the latter situation, there is still the aura of concentration.

So even in a room filled with people, there is almost no social interaction.

There do seem to be a few exceptions, first is the occasional 2 friends that came in together. They tend to chat a bit while using adjacent machines, or treadmills. Or once in a while, there is the dude who will talk to himself while working out...I tend to avoid that guy.

Reading vs Hearing

Reading a person's text, or email, or IM is very different from hearing their voice say the words. The first difference is that they tend to use different words in text form, because it is either easier to type it that way, or they have had time to look over what they are saying, and they edited it to make it sound better, and more like what they actually meant. I love the latter reason, because it means the person is really saying what they mean to say, not just talking as a quick response.
But that also puts some pressure on what you type, because once you send it, it can never be taken back, and there is evidence of its existence. When you say something really dumb online, you can be punished more for it, because you cannot just quickly change the subject, or re-iterate as easily as you can in verbal communication.
Another great reason text is different from talking is that you can choose to read the text any way you want. While the person might have meant the connotation to be one way, or not meant for something to sound a certain way, they really have no control over it. I can choose to make an incoherent text coherent by adding what I want to see, while its very hard to not hear a drunken slurr in face to face talking.

Annoying Classmate

In my life I have had a great number of classmates, and most of them never say a word. Those guys are the best. Some of them have said a few words, and mostly just to fill the awkward silence, those guys are pretty cool too. But then there are the few people, who feel the need to add their own input to the lecture, or ask above the scope of the course questions for no apparent reason. Those guys are really annoying.

These people can easily be picked out within the first day of the class, with quotes such as "just out of interest", or "I realize you can't, but suppose you could...". Another great way to identify them is by perhaps their most annoying trait, asking a question before thinking about it enough to actually ask it. You can tell this has happened when after being called on they say "umm" at least 3 times before talking, and stumble around with their first sentence for what seems like an eternity for both you and the professor.

Another common aspect of these people is that they seem to be very arrogant about their knowledge on the subject. In college, the question "why did you come to this class if you already know everything" comes to mind. Now with the arrogance, if you have to work with them at some point, you must be very careful. They will seem to know what they are doing because they truly believe they do, thus it is hard to believe they do not. They put off an aura of proficiency in the matter, but in my experience, they often are very lacking.

Instead of gaining a wide knowledge of the subject (through following a well planned lecture on a broad subject perhaps), they tend to dive head-first into a very small section of the subject matter. This leads them to have a decent knowledge of one point, but little knowledge of the whole. And what is worse is that they usually only have one source, which may or may not be outdated. So do not trust their knowledge, as it is often not as perfect at they might have you believe. And if you find yourself in a class with them, just nod and smile when they talk, it seems to please them when you pretend you know what they are talking about or agree with them, because if you don't, they will not stop arguing with you until their point is proven(or facts have been given to prove them wrong).

Applause

Applause is a tricky thing to determine when it is appropriate. Since I am in training now, we have had people come in and talk about the company. They are not performing, they are not spending more than an hour doing the presentation, or making it for that matter. So do they deserve applause? I personally don't think so. But I can see why some people might think otherwise.

If you go to a famous researcher's lecture, they deserve applause. They took their valuable time to show you something awesome they have researched. But the HR people talking about why you shouldn't pee in police officer's car, I don't think they deserve it. Or the guy who talks for 20 minutes about the founding and evolution of the company, I don't think so either.

But some people do, and applause is infectious due to peer pressure. When a few people clap, the whole room is going to, because not clapping turns into an offense to the lecturer, and makes you an outcast. Only if the group is truly stoic can is sustain the claps of one or a few by collectively not clapping, can the applause be halted. And in my experience, that is very rare, and ends in the clappers feeling outcasted and even shamed by their inferior discretion.