20 April 2007

My Aggie Muster, the Hokie edition

April 21 is Aggie Muster. I posted about this event last year. This year, I'll be calling a few names. Here's the list:


Ross Abdallah Alameddine Here.

Christopher James "Jamie" Bishop Here.

Brian Bluhm Here.

Ryan Clark Here.

Austin Cloyd Here.

Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Here.

Daniel Perez Cueva Here.

Kevin Granata Here.

Mathew Gregory Gwaltney Here.

Caitlin Hammaren Here.

Jeremy Herbstritt Here.

Rachael Elizabeth Hill Here.

Emily Jane Hilscher Here.

Jarrett Lane Here.

Matt La Porte Here.

Henry J. Lee Here.

Liviu Librescu Here.

G.V. Loganathan Here.

Partahi Lumbantoruan Here.

Lauren McCain Here.

Daniel O'Neil Here.

Juan Ortiz Here.

Minal Panchal Here.

Erin Peterson Here.

Michael Pohle Here.

Julia Pryde Here.

Mary Karen Read Here.

Reema Samaha Here.

Waleed Mohammed Shaalan Here.

Leslie Sherman Here.

Maxine Turner Here.

Nicole White Here.


See y'all on the other side. This may make y'all honorary Aggies, tho... ;-)

Orange?

Today is supposed to be we are all Hokies day. Wearing maroon, that I can handle. In fact, I manage to do it on a routine basis.

But orange? orange? ORANGE??!!! I'd rather have a dull stick poked in my eye. At least their orange is a fairly bright orange, not like the burnt orange of a secular college in Austin.

17 April 2007

Beware of the Simplistic Solution

In light of the heinous crime committed at VaTech yesterday, I predict that we will see even more simplistic solutions than we've already heard in the last 24 hours.

Further prediction: these solutions will do nothing positive, but will make you feel better about things. Like many of the reforms proposed to increase flight security, they only restrict what the law-abiding are permitted to do. And let's face it, if you're determined to kill someone, you're not going to feel a lot of remorse about taking a weapon into a weapons-free zone.

One last prediction: anyone peddling simplistic solutions are also looking to sell something.

12 April 2007

Spitwad of the Day...

Today's spitwad concerns my secret to personal happiness.

Step closer, please. I'm going to whisper the secret in your ear. This is for you only. No sharing!

Closer...

Ok, here's the secret of personal happiness:

Don't worry, be happy.

That's it. Just be happy.

Will you always be happy? no, of course not. Some events in life are not happy occurrences. Death, illness, injury as well as external things like job satisfaction, money or relationship issue intrude into daily life. But don't sweat the details, put your efforts into the big picture. Things have a way of working themselves out.

11 April 2007

Another little spitwad...

I was going to mention this in the Rutgers post, but got pressed for time and forgot to mention it. Back about 12-15 years ago, when I still played coed softball, my team played a frat-boy team and their (I assume) little sisters. Their team's name?

Bro's and Ho's


I found that appalling, and thoroughly enjoyed beating the snot out of them. I wondered how any self-respecting woman could put herself on a team like that. Oh, yeah, little sisters to a fraternity. Gotcha. They probably thought it cool and/or funny, not disrespectful and loathsome.

Hopefully they've grown up since.

Rutgers vs. Don Imus

I haven't gotten too much into cultural/political rantings, and I haven't posted in almost a year, but the Imus tempest-in-a-teapot is too tempting a target to resist. Particularly when one sees statements like this:

"I think that this has scarred me for life."

Matee Ajavon, junior guard, Rutgers University


I learned something a long time ago, Ms. Ajavon: sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. They can be upsetting, but you can't give in to them. Or you give asshat's like Imus - I've actually listened to his show a couple of times, but I simply couldn't get into it because of his asshattery - power over you. A better response would be

Imus doesn't know me. He doesn't know my teammates. He doesn't know what the frack he's talking about. He's not worth worrying about.


C. Vivian Stringer, criticized Imus for "racist and sexist remarks that are deplorable, despicable, abominable and unconscionable."


Maybe you should borrow some of your team's rap and hip-hop tunes and see what you think of the artist's lyrics, particularly where it concerns women. And I bet they get further and wider airplay than Imus does.

Well, did. Right up until everyone started pitching a fit and it ended up all over the place. We are well on our way to being the United States of the Offended.

Source for the quote: Xinhunet