If you're from the Charlotte area, you know about the Speedstreet Festival. You know the rows upon rows of overpriced piles of delicious and heart attack inducing munchies, the great free concerts, the funny drunk people, and the belle of the ball: The drunk redneck fight. There's nothing more exhilarating than standing shoulder to shoulder with a couple hundred strangers and hearing "don't say that about my momma damn it!" and then having an episode of Jerry Springer, without the security guards, go down right in front of your face. Fortunately, I'm a big ol' boy and was able to weather the flying fists and expletives assaulting me inadvertently from all angles. While the fights are great, I'd have to say the most uplifting part of the entire experience happens on the train ride back. Every year on the ride back to the train station in Pineville, the people inside the train band together to keep others off the train and avoid overly crowded seating arrangements; a testament to the ability to band together in spite of your fellow man. God bless us, everyone.
Anyways, I'm keeping this post short. I've actually got work to do now.
Good luck speedstreeting for those that are going. For those at aren't, brave the wife-beaters and possible hepatitis. It's totally worth it.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Procrastination
Last night, after work, I came home to find my bonus room (which will henceforth and forever be referred to as "The Man Cave") filled with poster board, glue sticks, glitter, construction paper, and countless other cutesy arts and crafts materials. Amidst the chaos sat my sister, Tori, at the laptop researching stock prices and various other statistics for her 10th grade economics project. She looked up just long enough to tell me that it was due today and that she had just started an hour before I'd found her in her current predicament. I had mixed emotions about the situation. Sure, I wish my sister had started earlier but I was also proud that I got to share in her first real encounter with procrastination. As I wiped the proud tear from my eye, I got to thinking about why we (and nearly everyone does) procrastinate on such a regular basis.
Everyone keeps telling us that our generation is hellbent on instant gratification in every facet of our lives. We want faster internet, faster texting, better cell service, etc. So if we want results so quickly all the time, it would seem as though we wouldn't sit around until the last minute to (and these are my recent examples) put together an entire semester's worth of biology into an e-portfolio, write a twelve page research paper, or write an eight minute speech in class the day it was due. I mean, there's no better feeling than just being done with an assignment that you've been dreading, so why don't we knock it out right when we get it. Is there some sort of subliminal pleasure that we get from waiting and pounding it all out in the wee hours of the morning before its due? Honestly, I can't personally justify the notion that you put things off because you want to have fun in the moment because the fun you have while you should be working is rarely equal to the stress incurred in those final twelve hours of frantic typing. So why not just do it? Why wait?
I was going to figure these questions out, but I think I'll do it later...
Everyone keeps telling us that our generation is hellbent on instant gratification in every facet of our lives. We want faster internet, faster texting, better cell service, etc. So if we want results so quickly all the time, it would seem as though we wouldn't sit around until the last minute to (and these are my recent examples) put together an entire semester's worth of biology into an e-portfolio, write a twelve page research paper, or write an eight minute speech in class the day it was due. I mean, there's no better feeling than just being done with an assignment that you've been dreading, so why don't we knock it out right when we get it. Is there some sort of subliminal pleasure that we get from waiting and pounding it all out in the wee hours of the morning before its due? Honestly, I can't personally justify the notion that you put things off because you want to have fun in the moment because the fun you have while you should be working is rarely equal to the stress incurred in those final twelve hours of frantic typing. So why not just do it? Why wait?
I was going to figure these questions out, but I think I'll do it later...
Friday, May 14, 2010
Fridays
I'd like to start by saying, that the second post was much more difficult to come up with than the first. Mostly because I've actually had work to do today, and that got me thinking about Fridays and how much we love them.
TGIF. We all know what it means: Thank God It's Friday. It's the day of the week when it's just a little easier to go to work, a little easier to wake up for class, or a little easier to get your work done around the house. Friday is the one day of the work week that people look forward to. I think it's amazing how the promise of the end is enough to get some people going. I, on the other hand, have a hard time seeing Fridays differently from any other day of the week. I still had to wake up at 6:30 am, put on a coat and tie, and go to work for 8 hours. I'll celebrate when it's 5:01 and I'm in Norah the Explorer listening to "Get Drunk and Be Somebody" on the the way home, but until then it's just another day.
People's love for this, the most sacred of the weekdays, is a great example of the mind's ability to expect, or think wishfully. Fridays are the portals to the weekend and everybody seems to love the sprint to the finish. Who knows whats on the other side of today? Could be a shitty couple of days, but most people will sit in their cubicles on Friday perfectly content with the idea that its almost the weekend with little or no actual contemplation on what the weekend holds. Why? Is it because we're excited about the end of the workweek? Is it because we've got cool stuff planned? Or is it because at the end of Friday a whole new realm of possibility is laid before us? Me? I just like to sleep until noon.
In the words of Wilco "where would we be without wishful thinking?"
TGIF. We all know what it means: Thank God It's Friday. It's the day of the week when it's just a little easier to go to work, a little easier to wake up for class, or a little easier to get your work done around the house. Friday is the one day of the work week that people look forward to. I think it's amazing how the promise of the end is enough to get some people going. I, on the other hand, have a hard time seeing Fridays differently from any other day of the week. I still had to wake up at 6:30 am, put on a coat and tie, and go to work for 8 hours. I'll celebrate when it's 5:01 and I'm in Norah the Explorer listening to "Get Drunk and Be Somebody" on the the way home, but until then it's just another day.
People's love for this, the most sacred of the weekdays, is a great example of the mind's ability to expect, or think wishfully. Fridays are the portals to the weekend and everybody seems to love the sprint to the finish. Who knows whats on the other side of today? Could be a shitty couple of days, but most people will sit in their cubicles on Friday perfectly content with the idea that its almost the weekend with little or no actual contemplation on what the weekend holds. Why? Is it because we're excited about the end of the workweek? Is it because we've got cool stuff planned? Or is it because at the end of Friday a whole new realm of possibility is laid before us? Me? I just like to sleep until noon.
In the words of Wilco "where would we be without wishful thinking?"
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Why I'm doing what I swore I'd never do...
I never thought I'd blog. I never really thought that I had much to say that'd be overly interesting to the general public. I haven't had some sort of creative epiphany or anything, but I figure I'll give it a shot anyways. So here we go...
I live in arguably the most boring town east of the Mississippi: Rock Hill, SC. Ask anyone from Rock Hill, lovingly and ironically referred to as "The Thrill", and you'll get the same basic story; not a whole lot to do that we haven't done a thousand times. Perhaps my friends and I are simply the jaded few who've lived here our whole lives, but I'm inclined to think not. I've watched the town grow in the two decades that I've lived here, and I've done just about everything there is to do. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been all mindless drudgery; there have been some good times, some good parties, and some good laughs but these generally coincided with the waves of change that have periodically swept over Rock Hill. For instance, when Carowinds built "Top Gun", I was ecstatic. I'd grown weary of the Park and its usual rides, but this rejuvenated my interest much like the new water park had a few year prior, but I digress. My friends and I rode Top Gun and loved it for an entire summer but eventually it just became another addition to the skyline hovering above the Pottery Barn of I-77. That's the basic story of every exciting thing that has ever come to Rock Hill.
So is the Thrill really that boring of a place? Or has it just become fashionable to be disinterested? Is our boredom attached to a overuse or under-use of the entertainment resources of our fair city?
I live in arguably the most boring town east of the Mississippi: Rock Hill, SC. Ask anyone from Rock Hill, lovingly and ironically referred to as "The Thrill", and you'll get the same basic story; not a whole lot to do that we haven't done a thousand times. Perhaps my friends and I are simply the jaded few who've lived here our whole lives, but I'm inclined to think not. I've watched the town grow in the two decades that I've lived here, and I've done just about everything there is to do. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been all mindless drudgery; there have been some good times, some good parties, and some good laughs but these generally coincided with the waves of change that have periodically swept over Rock Hill. For instance, when Carowinds built "Top Gun", I was ecstatic. I'd grown weary of the Park and its usual rides, but this rejuvenated my interest much like the new water park had a few year prior, but I digress. My friends and I rode Top Gun and loved it for an entire summer but eventually it just became another addition to the skyline hovering above the Pottery Barn of I-77. That's the basic story of every exciting thing that has ever come to Rock Hill.
So is the Thrill really that boring of a place? Or has it just become fashionable to be disinterested? Is our boredom attached to a overuse or under-use of the entertainment resources of our fair city?
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