[sunnykerr]

It was supposed to be busy but I became a slob and watched a marathon of The Secret Circle with a friend. Now I'm behind readings .

Well, sometimes we need to be slobs.

I didn't do anything Sunday except try to remember when I had last done nothing for a whole day... and I couldn't remember. No wonder I've been feeling like I'm constantly I'm the end of my rope, energy-wise.

[Gray Ghost]

I had a near death experience on Sunday. A pallet of sodas almost fell on me. I was lucky that the pallet didn't fall but the sodas did fall. I want to say there were probably about 50 to 70 packs of 12oz. 12 packs of Coca Cola that fell from probably 20 feet. If I hadn't have ran, I probably would have been crushed by them. I was not a happy camper about this at all. It took 2 hours to clean it up which meant I had to stay 45 minutes past my schedule time to leave my job which I hate. Luckily, the boss of the store and 2 coworkers helped me clean it up. I was trying to remove pallets from a metal shelf with the fork lift machine and somehow one of the pallets got stuck on the grate of the shelf and shook the shelf causing part of it to break. That caused a chain reaction and the sodas began to falll. I think it was a sign that I need a better job. The funny thing is that before I began to move the pallets from that shelf, I told the boss of the store that it would be better for me to leave that for the morning team so I could focus on work that was more important. He said no and that's that.

[sunnykerr]

Well, congratulations on the near-death! Sure as heck beats a "death experience."

[_vega_]

Near death experiences can be wake us up to change what we feel wrong with ourselves .

[Gray Ghost]

I was just furious at the time when it happened. It really made me think about my current situation. I've been stuck at a dead end job for 3 years mainly because of the economy and I don't know how to properly look for a job. When I graduated from college, I barely had any time to prepare for life after college. Looking back on it now, my college experience was somewhat of a disaster. It took me 5 and a half years after attending 3 colleges to finally graduate and I haven't even had a decent paying job since graduating from college. One thing that screwed me up was my last semester of college. I was given the run around about whether I could graduate during that last semester. It was the fall semester of 2007. I remember that I was told in November that I couldn't graduate because I'd be like 3 credits short. Yep, a whopping 3 credits. So I just figured that I would finish up next semester in May. December comes around and I check with an advisor to see what type of class I need to take to get the final 3 credits. I'm still told I can't graduate this semester. And keep in mind that that this is the last week of the semester. A couple days later, I get an email from someone in a higher up position telling me that I can graduate. I decided to go ahead and graduate rather than take a meaningless semester.
Can you believe that crap?
Looking back on it now, I feel really stupid and like a massive idiot that I did not try to take legal action against the university for doing me that way.
Ever since, I've always been tempted to try to write about the do's and don'ts of college. Teenagers, young adults, and anyone else that plans on going to college needs to be aware of the good and the bad and the do's and don'ts.
I went into college "blind" and it messed me up big time. I'd hate to see other people experience what I experienced. I know that I'm a negative pessimistic grouch most of the time but I hate to see people make terrible choices and mistakes when those choices and mistakes can be prevented.

[TheAngel]

Of course those mistakes can be prevented. I went to college blind, but I had a course catalog that told me what classes I needed to take and when they were offered, I had an advisor and university professors that I talked to, I had resources and other people at the university. Most colleges make it really easy to find out that information. It's not the university's fault. Legal action, really, they saved you money. And hey, you got to graduate on time after all. Sometimes you have to work in crappy jobs for a while. Two years ago, I was living with my parents, had a B.A. in English and Criminal Justice, and was working at a day care. Now I'm taking a job with a major metropolitan police department. It's easy to blame the economy, but jobs are out there. Sorry your experiences haven't been better, but keep working at it. It's easy to get defeated but keep on trucking

[sunnykerr]

Does anyone going into college really know what to expect?

I have two B.A.s from two separate school and even the second time around, I wasn't all that much more prepared since different schools do things different ways. And, since I was a "transfer" student, I also wound up taking about ten classes more that I technically needed in order to graduate, because I stupidly hadn't realized that some of my accumulated credits from the first degree would transfer to the new school.



Some people would see a new experience as an opportunity to learn.

[Gray Ghost]

That's the problem. Kids need to be better prepared for life after high school. I know this is very cliche but kids are the future. America needs to stop with the whole giving kids computers, cellphones, Ipods, and video games and get them back outside playing and taking them to zoos and museums. If we don't do that, we're gonna wind up like the humans did in Wall-E. I'm not saying that Earth is going to be full of trash and we're gonna have to leave Earth while a little robot cleans it but people could become extremely lazy and therefore being fat lazy bums sitting in floating chairs watching tv all day.
I was born in 1983 but I remember when I was younger that I played outside a lot. And I went to museums and zoos a lot too and my parents were part of the lower class back then, now they're barely middle class.



We also need to stop brainwashing kids into thinking that it's college or bust. With the college or bust mentality, it puts extreme pressure on kids not to fail and if they do fail, it can damage their self esteem and confidence. Not everyone is cut out for college. Some people can be very successful without going to college. We need to prepare kids in school and give them some type of life skills in school so they can use them when they leave high school and aren't lost. Knowing Shakespeare isn't going help you on a job interview. And knowing how to take a state standardized test isn't going to help you know how to pay bills or type a resume.

[TheAngel]

Yeah, I'm an '87 baby myself and I was the same way. I played outside, went to museums, read books, but I also had video games and played inside too. You don't want to totally do away with computers and video games for kids because those are important tools. A lot of education is done on computers, for example. The biggest thing is limiting game and TV time and making sure your kids get a broad range of experiences. My girlfriend and I have already talked about having kids and both of us think it's important that we give them a lot of physical activity, like taking them to the park, enrolling them in sports, going on hikes, to zoos and museums, etc. But they'll also be allowed to play video games and watch TV, it'll just be a limited family activity instead of them being allowed to sit in their room all day and play.

[Gray Ghost]

I was mainly saying that kids should take a break from technology so they won't become heavily depended on it. They should be introduced it to when they are older. I saw a story on the news last night about a school in Austin that is basically anti technology. They don't let their students use computers until they start high school. I don't have kids and I'd be afraid to have them out of fear of messing them up in the head but kids are extremely coddled and babied right now.

[_vega_]

My boss was a little too touchy feely today. It wasn't much but it was really uncomfortable, we say goodbye here with a kiss on the cheek and a hug if you are friends with the person but when I said goodbye today he huged me and wouldn't let go until I broke the embrace. We don't usually hug either, only one time when I went to an event where he was being awarded by the school for his work and I congratulated him, but so did everyone else and his wife was there so that was normal. Today was just weird.

[sunnykerr]

Vega I hope it was just a weird happenstance of his being emotional or something! That would SO freak me out.

As for this whole techonology versus physical education debate...

I don't know how to react!

I'm older than you guys (older than Atari even!!!), but I was a sickly little kid, so I wasn't allowed to run around and play outside. I learned to read when I was four and so that's pretty much what I did for the next... well, I still do that a lot.

I think it's a mistake to look at the past with too much nostalgia. I think it's a trap. The grass is always greener on the other side and all we do is cultivate our own sense of bitterness or feeling that we're in worse times.

It's never been perfect. The history of the world is people doing the best they can with the tools they've been given.

So I wasn't allowed to go outside as a child. Am I gonna blame my own lack of physical fitness on that? There comes a time when it's up to us to make the change we want. We're not in Burma or Iran or North Korea here. It's not perfect, it's not easy. But it's pretty darn good.

[Gray Ghost]

Kisses on the cheek? I rarely ever see that between two people that are just friends and are not dating. I don't know if it's a comfort thing or being overprotective but I rarely see it. I would say men would be more uncomfortable with it than women. Hugs are understandable to most people because it's a hug. Kisses are closer to crossing the line. I would think it would be inappropriate on the part of a boss or anyone in upper management to be kissing employees even if it's just on the cheek and not meant to be anything more. Things like that can lead to more like a boss might try to grab a butt or breast while hugging and/or giving a kiss.

[_vega_]

Sunny that might be, he seemed a little odd today.

I agree with you on the technology, we had more opportunities to go out back then but now kids have other adventages that we didn't at that time too. Many of those are thanks to technology.

Grey Ghost it's a cultural thing. To me, a hug is more personal than a kiss on the cheek because I only give hugs to friends and family whereas I tend to greet all kinds of people with a kiss on the cheek, even those I'm meeting for the first time.

[Gray Ghost]

You can see how a society like the one in Wall-E could be possible if we continue to be heavily depended on technology.

I saw a report today saying that psychology is the most unemployable major right now. I laughed but wasn't surprised. Of course, the major I picked is number 1 on the list. And of course, astronomy, pharmacology, and engineering are the most employable majors. The main problem with college is that there are too many students picking majors that aren't successful which causes them not to be able to get jobs and not being able to pay their loans which creates debt. We need to wake up and realize that college isn't for everyone. Community colleges and trade schools are not bad and shouldn't be looked as less either. We also need to somehow give students in high school some type of skills that will actually help them after they graduate. Like I said before, knowing the quadratic formula and shakespeare aren't really going to help you in life. We need a solution to whole college experience and debt issue but I honestly don't know how we can fix the debt issue since a lot of people are poor and middle class. My parents didn't save one penny for me for college and it cost me big time. I'm paying the price for that now.